It happened. Ok, two things happened and I'll rewind for a second. We have a cat. Why? Because someone dumped a starving two month old kitten somewhere and he was destined to find my son Austin. Once in his arms, there was no turning it away...even with a rescue pit bull in the house (who supposedly hates cats.) That's the backstory.
The nightmare begins with my external hard drive getting knocked off my desk..by the ever growing kitten who thought it would be fun to play with the cords.
The drive survived.
Until I went to move something and in the middle of transferring a wedding, I knocked it again.
The drive did not survive.
So there it was. My back up of all files (weddings, seniors, family stuff EVERYTHING) laying there with the very piece needed to connect it to my computer, missing. MISSING!
I felt the vomit rise in my mouth. The shakes of fear left me trembling. I finally lost files forever. My only hope was given to me by a local computer gal who suggested to send it away to a place that recovered files...if they are recoverable.Cue the background scary music of hopeless despair.
I always back up files twice. However after this particular wedding I was exhausted when I got home and I don't remember backing up my files.
Panic stricken, I went to my other external hard drive. The sweet smell of relief washed over me. There was everything I had ever shot, backed up, twice. I almost started crying and hugging myself. I must have been so tired that I didn't remember actually backing things up.
I share this story with you, not to put fear into any of my brides, but to encourage anyone who is looking for a wedding photographer to go with a professional.
It costs more, yes. However, I now have THREE systems for backing things up out of sheer determination that I will never make that phone call to someone.
Your awesome uncle or good friend with a camera is just that. Your local or not so local photographers have a back up and a back up for their back up. They have file recovery systems in place and god forbid something happen to their equipment, they have insurance and help in all those areas so that your precious memories don't get destroyed by a feline chasing cords.
