1981. I was 9 years old and already developing a thing for leather and whips.
Not like that obviously. I had no idea what puberty was let alone a fetish! No, it was the year that Raiders Of The Lost Ark opened and in doing so created a generation of wannabe whip-cracking, gun-toting, adventure-seeking archaeology professors!
One of the most powerful scenes for me was the final one. You know it – the one where the old man wheels the crated Ark on a trolley through a warehouse the size of Texas to be buried down a non-descript aisle amongst thousands of other similar generic crates, presumably never to be seen again.
Sound familiar? Well it’s pretty much what happens every time I need to store a CD somewhere in my apartment!
But CDs are still popular amongst brides and near the top of a typical want list from a package.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with issuing a disc of images if it’s part of the package or an added extra. I do believe in promoting albums and books as the best way to showcase the best images of the day, but neither will hold the number of decent photos you should be taking. So a CD has become standard issue whether you like it or not.
In addition to being a storage medium, CDs are also wanted for security. It’s nice to know the disc is near you if you need it, right? Unless you live in my place of course!
But times have changed and there’s an education job to be done.
Recordable CDs were introduced in 1990. That’s when a $10,000 IBM PC with a 20MB (yes 20MB!) hard drive was considered cutting edge and the word internet didn’t even exist! So these magical CD-Rs were an absolute miracle of technology.
Now things are different and CDs are no longer the best method of storage. In fact a CD that’s burnt on a home computer may only last for a few years before becoming unreadable, depending on the speed it’s burnt at and how it’s stored. Or if it gets lost.
Explain that to a client and they’ll probably say they’ll copy the files from the disc to their computer. But what’s the life expectancy of a hard drive? 10 years is considered lucky and with Apple releasing sexy new models every year, what are the chances their computer will even stay in the household long enough for the hard disk to fail?!
I’m not even going to assume clients will back up to external hard drives because, let’s face it, we photographers are bad enough when it comes to backing up so how can we expect our clients to be even more diligent about file protection?!
There’s a lot at stake. Your clients’ memories of their biggest day. Imagine the heartbreak they would go through if they lost their disc or their hard drive failed. You may still have copies (if your storage solutions are still intact!), but being the custodian of all your clients’ photos is a big responsibility and do you really want or need that when your passion is taking the photos? There needs to be a better solution for storage and security. And for me that solution is in The Cloud – the heavenly multitude of servers that store and protect more copies of your data than anything a mere mortal photographer can hope to replicate!
The last 30 years has seen a lot of progress in technology. Heaps. And we are now more empowered than ever to take advantage of it.
We already use the cloud for a multitude of personal reasons: our websites, email, facebook, google docs, dropbox, instapaper to name just a few.
There’s a good chance you may already be storing your clients’ photos on the cloud, and if so then stick with it. If you haven’t tried online storage then check out awesome sites like PhotoShelter where you can easily create professional galleries that your clients and their guests can visit to view the images and place orders for them.
Moving images to the cloud also brings accessibility so you and your clients can view the images from wherever you are; much more practical than a CD or hard drive!
The fabulous Jasmine Star recently announced that she will soon stop offering discs to clients and provide cloud solutions instead. I think that’s a great example to follow and it’s our responsibility to help our clients see things the same way.
Hmmm, I’ve just realised that the climax of Raiders sees a whole load of stuff from the Ark being sucked up into a massive cloud. I think Spielberg might have been onto something!
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I’m a born and bred Londoner who decided to give up the rat race, move halfway round the world to Australia and live by beautiful Bondi Beach.
But that’s not all. I also bought loads of cool camera gear to play with then realised I could use it to make a living, and now I run a successful wedding and baby photography business.
My background in media and marketing has been invaluable in quickly establishing myself, particularly through social networking, and I’m keen to help others do the same. I also strongly believe in giving back to the community, so look out for my blog posts where I’ll be sharing thoughts, insights, and tips about life as an emerging wedding photographer.