UHGGG! I am so careful with photos I still don't know how it happened. Believe me I tried everything to figure it out. I have Carbonite but they delete any files you delete after 30 days of your deletion and tracking back I believe I must have done this sometime in March. So no help from that. I have an external hard drive but for some reason the file I'm looking for isn't there. I downloaded a recover system and got a few back that way but most have been written over since it happened so long ago. For the life of me I can't figure out how it happened since I always make sure my photos are backed up before moving them. So, I have erased a large chunk of Grant's first year (and Clark's 3rd year).
On Monday I went to work organizing ALL of my digital photo files. They are now so organized (and so backed up) that nothing is getting to them! My way to attack a situation like this is to think it through - go through all the options and figure out a plan. So, it will not happen again, I will be more cautious, I will take more photographs and I will on a monthly basis load them to an on-line photo account (Shutterfly) to make sure even if all of my files go down they are still somewhere. Plus, I will print out copies of the best photos more frequently.
Luckily, I think I have every month now covered by at least a couple of photos of the boys and/or a Flip video of them (which I can turn the video into a couple photos). I pulled and re-saved all of the photos I had uploaded to sites like Blogger, Facebook, Shutterfly, etc. and so have some of my favorite photos throughout the year saved. Also, it wasn't exactly the whole year - for some reason I had saved part of certain months in one folder and parts in another. So I have photos of all the major events (birth, baptism, 4th of July, Iowa State Fair, National FFA Convention, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas - and the 2009/10 blizzards/snow drifts). However I still ask any friends and family that may have photos of my family btw May 2009 and March 2010 please send them to me. I cannot thank God enough that Alan had copies of Grant's birth saved on his computer - whew!
I am now probably going overboard with photos and videos since I have increased the number taken in the past few days substantially. This will taper off I am sure but for now a little extra photo attention won't hurt anything. If you take nothing else away from today's blog - please safe guard and organize your photos. I kept putting it off and was heartbroken on Saturday evening. It wasn't as bad as I had thought at first (it could have bee SO much worse) but still - don't put it off!
My philosophy through the whole thing was (and what got me thinking rationally) we are blessed by God to have the boys and my own memories of our time spent with them. This is more than I deserve and I will cherish the time spent with them far more than any photo!
I did have to laugh - I bemoan the loss of the photos during this time (and to those who have lost far more I am so very sorry). However, I still probably have more photos of them than my husband and I have from one year growing up combined. And my dad was a great photographer and had a great camera and I do have lots of photos but it still isn't like the numbers of photos we take so easily today.
Now just a couple of my favorites from today and yesterday so I have them in case all three of my back up systems fail me all at the same time:
No comments:
Post a Comment