Let's say you lose all your photos

Aquarium Dreams · Jun 17, 2007

Like I did, because I'm a genius. Now when I go out shooting, instead of seeing things fresh, I feel compelled to reshoot many of the images I lost.

So I was wondering, for those who've lost data before, or for those who just want to offer an opinion, do you think you'd go back out with fresh eyes right away, shooting things you haven't shot before, or would you shoot the same things for a while, attempting to recapture some of the lost images?

D-50 · Jun 17, 2007

I recently lost all my work and find that I am going to similar spots that I had shot before although you can never really get the same shot twice unless your in a studio so I guess Im shooting things with a different eye but of the same scenes.

astrostu · Jun 17, 2007

One fall I lost all my photos from the summer. Several hundred since I had been away at an internship in Arizona and we went to visit the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and other places. Plus after that, I had gone to Yellowstone with my family.

Basically, there was no way I could go out and re-do the shots.

What I ended up doing was getting the photos other people took (friends at the internship, my dad's from Yellowstone) and the 21 panoramae I took at Yellowstone that I had given to my parents. It was incredibly depressing.

The_Traveler · Jun 17, 2007

I think I'd head for a liquor store and a tall building in that order because there's no way I can retake most of my shots. (not that they're good but time has past and the world is really big.)

Garbz · Jun 17, 2007

Liquidate your assets (except your camera) quit your job sell your house and move overseas. Start life new. You can't be trying to take the same photos in a different country

It sucks either way. People BACK UP YOUR STUFF. Also remembers CDs have a 5-6 year life span so REBACKUP every few years.

usayit · Jun 17, 2007

Some CD-Rs have longer life but cost more:
http://www.delkin.com/products/archivalgold/index.html

If I lost all my photos, I probably would go back and reshoot. Actually, I do that anyway... sometimes different light, different time of the day, different mood, changes in scenery etc.. make it fun to reshoot.

oldnavy170 · Jun 17, 2007

I would cry..........

ale:

LaFoto · Jun 18, 2007

oldnavy170 said:
I would cry..........ale:

Well said.
I would, too.

And then, most likely go to my preferred spots and take photos there again, and other than that ... keep crying.

abraxas · Jun 18, 2007

About a year ago I lost several hundred original shots of 5-6 locations, and a few of those were an ordeal to get to. I hadn't backed up for a couple months and,... well it is a very sad story.

What can you say?- I need some of those shots and will make it back to a couple those places and get them since I need them.

All in all, at least it was a motherboard that got smoked rather than me being dusted by cement truck while crossing the street.

You can bet on two things, I'll take better shots on the reshoot and I have a better backup routine in my workflow.

newrmdmike · Jun 18, 2007

unless i lose them on the cf card i don't lose them. immediatly back up to two dvds, and copy to two different hard drives, one hard drive and dvd goes to storage.

small jpgs of the shots are kept on the main drive.

Peniole · Jun 18, 2007

Knock on wood newdrmike for both you and me, you sound as obsessive as I am. Backup on solid media and on a portable HDD, back up to the server at work (which is backed up daily on tape), keep all images on two separate computers, send the really really irreplacible ones to the parents, keep the online edits on an online server. Also print some of the really good ones on archival paper. Can you tell I'm nuts yet!!!

But seriously I would crawl into a corner and cry, there are certain places and of course certain events that you just cannot recreate.

newrmdmike · Jun 18, 2007

========= > WOW < ===============

i thought i was obsessive, but jeez, that made me feel like i need to go create a bomb shelter to store multiple copies in!

no but really, backups get corrupted easier than the original copies it seems.

Peniole · Jun 18, 2007

Well for images never use backup programmes, they compress data, which is always bad for us. Just copy and paste, so what if you have more than one copy in more than one place.

Hertz van Rental · Jun 18, 2007

A great deal of my old professional stuff 'mysteriously' disappeared during my divorce. It was all neg/tranny going back to the late 70's (as well as negs of family photos from the 50's).
I only have one picture of my own children growing up...
But the boys chose to live with me so I see it as a fair trade. Now and then I think back on the odd decent shot I took but it doesn't bother me not having them.
I'm not precious about my work anyway, so I just move on and take new stuff.

Alex_B · Jun 18, 2007

loss of all images? terrible

but then again I wish to reshoot many things anyway since I think I could do it better anyway. So if I have the chance I get back to some locations anyway.

I only lost images once, actually beginning of this year I lost all my firework-shots from new years eve since a laptop harddrive crashed BEFORE I did the usual backup