YES!!

I strongly suggest, especially with pictures and videos and other important documents, that you back up to an external hard drive, burn to a DVD, and finally, most definitely try to back up to an off site source, meaning somewhere not in your home. There are several companies, such as Mozy, that offer this service, and yes, it does cost money.  But spend a little time shopping around and you can find some good deals out there. Its like a safe deposit box, which many of us already have, only digital.  And if, God forbid, you lost your home to a fire, flood, or earthquake, you could still recover your data if you used an off-site service.

I bring this to your attention because I just had a HUGE hard drive failure yesterday.  This hard drive was my life, my work, my family memories, EVERYTHING!!  I spend quite a bit of time organizing my client folders, personal folders and losing this would have been catastrophic.  But I also have an amazing husband, who is an IT Genius, and he saved everything.  I also have an off-site storage for my client photos with my new client proof gallery, which I will be sharing with you all in the next post.  And even though I have meticulous organization in the digital world,  I also now keep an actual physical file with all the same info.. just in case.  So you can be assured, that when hard drives fail, and they do, your pictures will be safe and sound.

Peace of mind shouldn’t be taken for granted.  Go back up your computer today!

One more point to add, this type of recovery, if I had to pay someone, could be very expensive.  I read recently of one photographer’s unfortunate situation where she lost all of her client photos and was told it would cost her $2000 to recover them.  Ouch!

Mommy Photographer Tip #1

Did you know that when you sign up with an online photo processing website, they often give you free 4×6 prints?  I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve signed up with every online photo site I could find that would send me free 4×6 prints.  Some might call me frugal.  I call it comparison shopping!  Believe it or not, each company prints a little differently and you might find one that you like better than others.  I happen to like Shutterfly for everyday prints. They offer lots of fun products, while keeping the process quick and easy!  My kids even know how to use Shutterfly and love seeing the pictures they take in print!

If you’re new to shutterfly, you’ll receive 50 4×6 prints!  But today you can get 75 free 4×6 prints if you use the special code below! But hurry!! Coupon expires today!

So get those jpgs out of your camera, out of your computer and into your scrapbooks, in your frames or even on your fridge!  Just get them out! We take these pictures for a reason, after all.  To enjoy…to share…to remember.  Your hard drive will thank you.