I've lost my photos!

You could hear the panic through the words of the email "I've lost my photos, help!"

It had been a year since their wedding and like many brides my client had received all digital images as a download. Now the download was lost and the bride was in a panic thinking all her wedding photos were gone!

It can happen far too easily when everything is digital - but there is no reason why it should.

Of course, having hired a professional full time photographer, this bride was able to call and I was able to simply provide her a new download - none of her images were lost.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!" she said, "Seriously I was on the verge of tears when I couldn’t find the pictures!"

When looking for a wedding photographer, brides think about what their images will look like and grooms check out the price, but they don't often think about whether they will be able to reaquire their images if they happen to misplace them.

There are lots of ways you can make sure you always have your photos from your wedding. Digital does make it easier to loose your images, but it also makes it much easier to make sure that will never happen. Be sure to take advantage of the fact that you have digital images so that you never have to be without them.

And be sure to hire a professional who knows how to take care of your files, just in case!

Here are three things you can do to make sure you never loose your wedding images:

1. HIRE A PROFESSIONAL

Hiring a "good" photographer doesn't mean their business will still be around in a year. It's a tough job and a tougher market. Many people want to be photographers but not all know how to run their business, including how to store the images properly once they have been taken. Many of them aren't around in a year or two and neither are your photos. It is expensive to store your images in archive, and even if you are paying your photographer good money, they still may not spend it on the infrastructure to keep your images safe.

As well as the download or USB key you get from Gary's Lens, your images are backed up to an on-line gallery where they remain as long as I continue to pay the company. You can view them and download them whenever you need to. They are also stored on an archive storage unit filled and sorted with Terabytes of photos. Your images can always be found somewhere even if you happen to loose your copy.

2. PRINT THEM

With the advent of digital it is too easy not to print your images, but be sure to print some of them, especially the ones you like the best. It is much harder to misplace prints, a photo book or a canvas than it is to misplace the digital files or the USB key.

As a side note, at Gary's Lens, even the original images used to create your photo book are kept on the storage unit. Even if you spill coffee on your book and need to replace it, we can have a new one to you in a couple of weeks.

3. BACK THEM UP

You should be able to copy the images you download or find on your USB key. Be sure to do that! Copy them onto your computer, onto your family members' computers and even into your own cloud storage. That way you will always have quick and easy access to a copy should something happen.

NO EXCUSE

In the end, if you hire the right photographer, there is really no reason why you should ever loose your wedding photos. Barring a massive nuclear attack, you can rest assured that they will always be somewhere if you take some of these simple precautions.