Photo storage

[peakn]

Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this, but-
I'll be heading to the Swiss Alps in a couple of weeks for a couple of weeks, and expect to return with hundreds of pics stored on the Sony memory stick pro.
1- What is the best way to store hard copies of the files?
2- Is there a good and "reasonable priced" DVD burning software for PC (XP Pro) that could be used to create a slide show with some of the pics? That would include the ability to make Titles and possibly add some music/yodeling

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated!
Harry

 

[Tom Rankin]

Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this, but-
I'll be heading to the Swiss Alps in a couple of weeks for a couple of weeks, and expect to return with hundreds of pics stored on the Sony memory stick pro.
1- What is the best way to store hard copies of the files?
2- Is there a good and "reasonable priced" DVD burning software for PC (XP Pro) that could be used to create a slide show with some of the pics? That would include the ability to make Titles and possibly add some music/yodeling

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated!
Harry

For '1', assuming you don't mean printing them, I copy important data to a physically removable USB hard drive, and store it in a different location. This is my paranoid disaster backup plan, in case my house burns down, etc.

 

[sapblatt]

On my recent CO trip I had the luxury of staying in a motel with Hi Speed Internet...
Each evening I was able to take images off of my SD card and copy them on to my laptop, I then in turn uploaded them to Shutterfly and backed them up on a USB Flash Drive.
So, in the end I had the images in four locations, which I felt was pretty safe:

SD Card
Laptop hard drive
Shutterfly.com
USB drive

Even if I lost all my luggage and my keys with the flash drive, the pics were still somewhat safe on the Shutterfly server.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

1- What is the best way to store hard copies of the files?
2- Is there a good and "reasonable priced" DVD burning software for PC (XP Pro) that could be used to create a slide show with some of the pics? That would include the ability to make Titles and possibly add some music/yodeling

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated!
Harry

1 - While there are many ways to store files, my current favorite is using an external drive which connects to my PC (running XP) via a USB port. Whenever I wish to 'backup' subdirectories from my PC I copy them to this external device. It's very fast (nearly as fast as my PC's "C" drive), portable, and inexpensive. Staples has 100G+ units for less than $100. Memory cards/sticks are great, but if you have lots of storage needs the external drive may be the ticket.

2 - There are lots of slide-show software programs out there (burning it to a DVD may or may not be included, but if not can be done by a utility program). My current favorite is an easy to use freebie from Microsoft - Photo Story 3. It's downloadable from their website.

 

[Grumpy]

My needs (and resources) as an active freelancer in the newspaper photography game may be a bit different from yours. The on-board (camera) memory cards are a very expensive and inefficient image storage medium, in my view, although I am inclined to believe they are about indestructible!

I generally shoot in RAW format, which produces very large files and make lots of images – often several gigabytes of data in a day.

Here’s my general procedure after the shooting:

1) Upload image data to my laptop (MacBook Pro) computer.

2) Copy the uploaded data to an accessory portable hard drive.

3) Edit my shoot (caption photos, select the “keepers,” and prepare them for transmission to the client, etc.)

4) Copy the day’s work files to DVD.

5) Reformat memory cards.

In the end of the day, I have the material saved in three separate locations: the laptop, the separate hard drive and the DVD. I periodically do a secure deletion of photo files from my laptop to recover hard drive space.

I do not use one of the remote server archiving services. One day I may become more sophisticated … but so far the procedure outlined above has worked for my purposes.

Between Photoshop and Microsoft Office (which includes PowerPoint) I can produce slide shows that meet my needs.

Hope this may have been helpful to you.

G.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

There are at least a few other threads in this forum which discuss, in detail, backup and other external storage methods for photos. A laptop and a flash drive will probably be the most convenient, where you keep the flash drive with you in case you lose the laptop.

If you're going to spend money on this, you may as well just buy a few more high-density cards for your camera.

Tim

 

[peakn]

Thanks !

Thanks guys for all your suggestions! Looks like the very first thing to do is to acquire an external drive and then investigate the software to create DVD's. I have a Webshots account so will probably upload to there as well, just to have them in another place.
Harry