Re: DIGITAL PHOTO STORAGE

**<c*@gardengate.net>**

> The big issues I deal with are 1) cataloging images and 2) now that I
> am taking larger photos, storing the images without having to
> constantly burn DVDs.  I find that if I try to store images on a DVD
> (or a CD), I tend to file them away and never look at them again.
>
Storage and cataloging is a not new issue brought to us via the digital
world. However, no longer will little yellow boxes or filing cabinets full
of slide sleeves do the trick. Albeit if you still shoot slides and want to
scan them you're now dealing with analog and digital storage and
cataloguing.

Reference cataloging I transferred by analog system of number to the scanned
slides and adapted the numbering system for digital by changing a character
in the name from "S" for slide to a "D" for digitally captured image. I can
look at the digital number and find the slide in both the analog and digital
filing cabinets. Everyone will have their own numbering system. Cataloguing
is time consuming but with an advantage. Using Extensis Portfolio (the other
mid-weight option is Cumulus) I can keyword images for a quick search and
buy creating digital catalogs I can view the image thumbnails quickly. A
single image can be in multiple catalogs. There are many cheaper cataloguing
programs but Portfolio is becoming a standard for small business short of
the really high powered stuff used by newspapers et al.

If you are storing your scanned images or, heaven forbid your digital
captures (which are now your original slides) on a CD or DVD I would rethink
it. New testing has shown that CD's are not as stable and once assumed. The
most stable CD's use gold and they cost more and are not as readily
available. CD rewriteable have been known to not be stable but now there are
heavy duty questions and doubt about CD's too. For DVD's, try reading the
DVD you burn on another computer, even a MAC to MAC or PC to PC, and forget
going from, MAC to PC or vice versa. We're still in the Beta VHS stage with
DVD's. And are they stable?

I decided that hard drives were the safest bet for now. However you must
make backup copies of your hard drives. I use several Network Attached
Storage disk RAIDS for storage of all digital media. I've had one disk go
down in one unit an lost no data. That's the advantage of a RAID.
Additionally each RAID is backed up each day to a portable FireWire drive.
Once per week the backup drive is taken from my studio to my office at work
and exchange for a second disk which is brought back to the studio. The most
I could ever loose would be one week's work. If I do a lot of work at one
time I'll make a second backup. Hard drive are big now and cheap, less than
a dollar per gig. Plus this system is a lot faster and easier than using
CD's or DVD's. I use SureSync to automate the backup which does a mirror of
each NAS to the backup drive each night and sends me an email confirming
that it worked.

Charles W. Bowers
Garden Gate Landscaping, Inc.
821 Norwood Road
Silver Spring, MD 20905

charlie@gardengate.net
www.gardengate.net

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