Saving those memories

When I was in college, a friend experienced the horrors of his family's home being gutted by fire. Later, as we discussed the event, he talked about how his mother went back into the house to try and save her most treasured valuables: the family photos.

I relate that story to bring home a couple of points. First, photos are probably the most valuable things we have. While other items can be replaced, that photo of your children being born, or taking their first steps, or that special trip with a special friend, can NEVER be replaced. Once the photo is gone, it's gone forever.

Which brings me to the larger point. When is the last time you backed up your photos? Sure, we don't have shoeboxes of prints lying around...that's been replaced by hard drives and DVDs. But the point is the same. If these "memories" are lost, they are gone forever. And sure, you possibly can get photos back if a hard drive crashes, but it's expensive and not always a 100% guarantee.

I cringe when I hear of people who have ALL their digital photos on their computer without a backup. It's a disaster waiting to happen. Add to the fact that all my images could be purchased (thus having value) it's imperative that I back up.

There are a myriad of options: external hard drives, DVDs, off-site storage, online storage...so take some time to research each one and see what works best.

If you can't remember to backup, perhaps an online service that automatically backs up your hard drive is more appropriate.

For me, I am overly cautious. I have one hard drive with my main photos, then two hard drives as a back up. Finally, I burn high-quality DVDs every Friday of each new set of photos I've taken for the week. And those DVDs go into a fire-proof safe.

I'm also looking at options to use online services to back up photos.

Sure, there is an expense involved. But for the most part it's a workflow issue: develop a plan to back up AND STICK TO IT!

AMS/IFAJ Photo Workshop a success!

The AMS/IFAJ Photo Workshop in Ft. Worth was a success! Thanks to the expert guidance of Michael Schwarz (http://www.michaelschwarz.com/), we had 30 enthusiastic students who were turned loose at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. The assignment: capture the flavor of old Texas. The group did a great job.

http://michaelworkshops.com/AgSummit/

A little spring cleaning

Spring cleaning is a good thing, so I decided to do a little cleaning (and updating) of the photo hard drive. Funny how such a small task can take until the wee hours of the morning. I do feel better knowing that I have purged the drive of some waste, plus I moved several assignment shoots offline. Lightroom sure makes the task easier.

Cleaning also allows me to review the photo collection. I found 54 new photos that I posted to my site (www.mooreagphotos.com). Maybe cleaning will pay!

Imperial Valley, here I come!

I'm putting the final touches on a trip to the Imperial Valley May 5-8. I was able to secure a super-cheap airline ticket, and I'm piggybacking my travels with a conference that my wife is attending.

While it will be a vacation, of sorts, I know that the days will be quite long. I have three full days to myself to shoot, and the weekend in San Diego.

These types of shoots are the ones I REALLY enjoy. I have a loose schedule, plenty of CF cards, and a good chance I won't see rain.

Search Engine Optimization

I've been up and running with my web site (www.mooreagphotos.com), via Photoshelter, for about three months now. I've also added Google Analytics to the site, which is a great tool to determine how many folks are coming to my site, how long they stay on, what pages they view, and where they come from.

One area that's been missing is getting my name to start showing up at the top of the search engines. I spent one afternoon attending a Photoshelter webinar on optimizing my site for search engines, and it was a great investment of my time. I learned what to do, and what not to do, to get traffic to my site.

It's starting to pay off, and I am seeing more folks coming in from referring sites and from search engines. Now, I have to generate some sales. But at least I'm taking the first step.

If you want to find out more, Photoshelter has the webinar available at www.photoshelter.com. It's free, takes about an hour, and provides some excellent ideas on how to help your site.

A little fun

Just so you know, I don't spend ALL my time at the computer or behind the camera. The Moore family has used YouTube to broadcast the soon-to-be-famous "Julia and Nathaniel Christmas Concert" that is recorded LIVE from the Moore Family living room.

This is the third year of the concert, and we don't do ANY editing...so it's a raw 5 minutes or so of our kids. It's funny how every time I watch the videos I catch something else that makes me laugh.

Enjoy!

More on my website

OK, I'm slow. Here's my Crops gallery from my website. It will take you directly to the Photoshelter website.