Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Looking around in the basement the other day and noticed my stock pile of family photo albums and a few bags of photos,i then got to wondering about my accumulation of photos over the last decade and realized they are all on Photobucket and totally inaccessible to my kids or their kids,theres no way for them to trip over bags of photos and albums of past family memories.
I kinda like the idea of easily having photos in hard copy,these days you cant even buy film anymore,lose your password to photo bucket and there goes a lifetime of photos.
Looking around in the basement the other day and noticed my stock pile of family photo albums and a few bags of photos,i then got to wondering about my accumulation of photos over the last decade and realized they are all on Photobucket and totally inaccessible to my kids or their kids,theres no way for them to trip over bags of photos and albums of past family memories.
I kinda like the idea of easily having photos in hard copy,these days you cant even buy film anymore,lose your password to photo bucket and there goes a lifetime of photos.
Im 22 and just bought a pentax ME and loving the film! still got so much to learn not missing film one bit!
I see it the other way, when it's online then I can share it with more people... my Whole family, spread out across the world, can see my photos. It costs me ~$6/month for unlimited storage (plus all my email, hosting for other things ~ some of which pays me so I actually come out ahead overall), it's all on servers with redundant drives and tape backups so I never really need to worry about loss ~ though I do have redundant backup local too.
I think back to all of my dads 35mm slides... I know he had a TON of them with some really great shots, but I can't see them. They're in storage boxes somewhere, only those who are local and see them, and only if they can get the slide projector out and setup/working too. It's just a PITA, just as scanning them will be when I eventually go through them all to find the keepers. Then I can remove the physical clutter while retaining that which is important.
Not like I'm a kid, I'm in my 40's, I just don't have a hangup on physical "stuff". I'm after the content, not the method of delivery.
If you want physical photos, buy a printer or send them off to be printed out. There is *nothing* stopping you from having exactly what you want. Afraid of losing a password, then make sure you enter valid recovering information on whatever site you choose to use AND keep a redundant set locally (off-line, in a fire-proof safe). Storage is cheap.
Oh, digital all the way.
And, back up to multiple drives and a cloud service or two.
Keeping thousands of photos organized is demanding, but much easier than that pile of deteriorating prints I have in the closet.
Every now and then I pull out my EOS 3 and run a roll or two through. (Less and less, but I still do)
Interestingly, last Sunday, I attended a seminar by National Geographic photographer Jay Dickman.
One thing he said during section on back-up and storage was that we will become the forgotten generation. No more boxes of slides, negatives and photos, no scuzzy interface for thousands of images stored on Jaz Drives, cataloging tools like Aperture no longer supported.
Will jpegs be recognized in the future?
What storage devices will still be supported?
What Raw converters will still be supported?
Will our work still be around for our grand kids???????
Happy Thanksgiving!
Will our work still be around for our grand kids???????
As with everything else, there will Always be a transitional time where any new format and the old format will both be supported. There will also be conversion tools to migrate from an older format to a newer format.
The work/images will survive only so long as there's a custodian for them. Exactly like how it works with physical medium... how many great images have been tossed in the trash? Forgotten in an attic and then sold with a house (or damaged with a leaky roof)?
It's just a new list of issues, but it all comes back to the same thing... someone has to care about preserving the images. Without that person, the same thing happens. Only, in the future, it won't be a box of negatives but an SD card that's found in the walls. Or a sysadmin going through backups and stumbling on something. Storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, people will be keeping multiple copies of Everything (I already do, anything important to me is in 3 places ~ 2 that are daily mirrors and the 3rd that's monthly/bi-monthly).
As with everything else, there will Always be a transitional time where any new format and the old format will both be supported. There will also be conversion tools to migrate from an older format to a newer format.
The work/images will survive only so long as there's a custodian for them. Exactly like how it works with physical medium... how many great images have been tossed in the trash? Forgotten in an attic and then sold with a house (or damaged with a leaky roof)?
It's just a new list of issues, but it all comes back to the same thing... someone has to care about preserving the images. Without that person, the same thing happens. Only, in the future, it won't be a box of negatives but an SD card that's found in the walls. Or a sysadmin going through backups and stumbling on something. Storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, people will be keeping multiple copies of Everything (I already do, anything important to me is in 3 places ~ 2 that are daily mirrors and the 3rd that's monthly/bi-monthly).
That was the point that I was trying to make. We all need to be very careful and keep up with technology. right now, I have everything on PC's hard-drive and one external HD that is constantly backing up daily.
I keep a set of DVDs of all of my digital work.
I also gave 2 more external hard-drives...1 backs up every image (and important docs and files) the other in our safe deposit box. I switch those 2 drives monthly
Now, I have to go through boxes of family images my Mother took starting in the 30s and my images, negs and slides starting in the 60s and scan or send out for scanning along with VHS movies starting in the 80s. These all need to be backed up on DVDs
The sad thing is that we kept pushing my Mom to put people's names on her photos. Unfortunately she started too late and we have no idea who most of the people are?????
I got started back in the mid 80's with 35mm slr's. I still own 3 of them, as a matter of fact I am going out this afternoon and shoot some film. Do I miss film? Not really, but I do not see me ever getting rid of my film equipment. Even though my film slr's have program modes I use them in manual because it forces me pay more attention to things like light, shadows, exposure, framing and to check for unwanted items in the view finder before I press the shutter button. I like to think it makes me a little bit better photographer.
I miss film. The tactile aspects of loading into the camera using a fully manual spool and lever, of hearing and feeling the solid click of the winder when the camera is ready for shooting, and of turning lens rings and camera dials have no match in the digital world. It is like the difference between playing guitar-like sounds on a digital device vs. playing real strings.
Under the darkroom safelight, there is nothing as wondrous as seeing your images emerge from paper as you immmerse it in the chem trays. NOTHING. It is like magic. Or before that, gingerly removing the first roll of film that you developed yourself, breathing a big sigh of relief and awe that yes, you really did it right and those funny reversed-tone frames came out OK.
From childhood, I also wistfully remember taking hours to peruse the prints that my father had created, which someone (my mother?) had carelessly tossed into paper grocery bags. Maybe that is why I made sure not to treat my own slides and prints that way. Film slides viewed on a light table or tablet or through a loupe type of viewer held up to a window glow like little jewels.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
