Logistics

[Randomface74]

I'm probably going to get a decent camera this week and start taking photos on probably a daily basis.

However, there are logistical consequences to consider first...

I'm looking for options based on your experience:

- Where do you store your photos?
- Where do you backup your photos?
- Where do you share your photos?
- Where do you sell your photos?

 

[Andrew_McP]

- Where do you store your photos?

Increasingly, on cheap SD cards! Especially if I'm ruthless about deleting junk. But on the PC I have a dedicated 500GB drive with another 500GB in a USB3 dock as home backup, just for photos. I'm up to 180GB now, and could cull a lot of it, but there's no need yet. I'll eventually upgrade to 2 x 1TB, though what usually happens is I upgrade my main PC hard drives, and the old ones become photo drives.

- Where do you backup your photos?

Google backup does unlimited backup at limited size. So everything goes up there for free so, in a dire emergency, I wouldn't have lost everything.

- Where do you share your photos?

The internet is full of mediocre photos. I try not to share too many of mine. But Google Plus does some interesting things with uploaded photos these days. Some of the autoawesome stuff is funny as heck, though I'm not sure they mean it to be. eg 'dog in an earthquake'.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-.../ajfTduScmOo/w890-h668-no/IMG_3768-MOTION.gif

- Where do you sell your photos?

Easiest answer of all... nowhere. :->

Edit: img replaced with url... it was making me seasick!

 

[Phate]

- Where do you store your photos?
- Where do you backup your photos?
- Where do you share your photos?
- Where do you sell your photos?

Photos are stored on my NAS
Photos are on the NAS, therefore backed up
500px, Bookface, email, website
I don't, I sell myself which includes my photos....well, that sounds wrong!

 

[Randomface74]

When you say the photos are backed up because they're on your NAS... if the NAS dies, where's the other copy?

 

[mr tommo]

I'm looking for options based on your experience:

- Where do you store your photos?
On a 3TB MyCloud hard drive
- Where do you backup your photos?
Daily backup from the MyCloud to an attached USB 3TB external hard drive
Also have another 3TB external hard drive that is backed up after every wedding, but only contains the original images. This hard drive is kept off site.
- Where do you share your photos?
Our facebook page, venue facebook pages and our website
- Where do you sell your photos?
As phate, sell our service which includes images

 

[Phate]

When you say the photos are backed up because they're on your NAS... if the NAS dies, where's the other copy?

Ive got a raid 5+ hot swap setup.

The likeliness of more than one drive dying within 24hrs is beyond unlikely to bother investing in anything else.

 

[JBuk]

- Where do you store your photos?
- Where do you backup your photos?
- Where do you share your photos?
- Where do you sell your photos?

Synology ds212 NAS drive ,2x 2tb drives , one mirroring the other for backup

I mostly share photos amongst friends on Facebook

I don't sell photos, I've never tried to make any money from photography , yet

 

[Randomface74]

lol - a basic nas box with drives is about the same cost as a camera

 

[mr tommo]

lol - a basic nas box with drives is about the same cost as a camera

Have a look at the WD MyCloud. I think its great. Always have access to it online - granted it can be slow if you are messing around with large files etc.

I like the way it is a NAS drive and also you can configure it to backup whenever you want to a cheap hard drive as a safety precaution. Our whole setup was only £300 and that includes 2 backups.

 

[abbotsmike]

lol - a basic nas box with drives is about the same cost as a camera

Just get an external hard drive then. My storage consists of 1 copy on internal drive, then backed up to a 2TB USB3 external that lives offsite. I plan to get a NAS/server set up at some point, but haven't got round to it yet.

 

[Sh4rkie]

- Where do you store your photos?
File server - RAID 6 array
- Where do you backup your photos?
Backup file server - RAID 5 array + 2 x hard drives, one in 'fireproof' document box and one offsite
- Where do you share your photos?
Facebook, forums etc.
- Where do you sell your photos?
n/a

.edit.
add external drive info

 

[Zogger]

Ive got a raid 5+ hot swap setup.

The likeliness of more than one drive dying within 24hrs is beyond unlikely to bother investing in anything else.

not worried about theft, exploding drives or anything? Personally I would want at least occassional backups to another disk that isn't physically directly next to the 'backup'.

After I recently started a thread about backups, I have 1x 3TB drive and 1x 2TB drive in the computer (one for photos and one for videos from the video camera) and a synology 214se NAS which has 2 non-raided 3TB disks, plus I have removable USB storage which I am keeping in the garage for more occassional backups.
I also decided to try uploading to crashplan but not sure I'll subscribe - currently 140 days remaining on my upload...

Maybe I value the photos a bit highly but I wouldn't want one freak accident to wipe out years of pictures and videos (mostly of my daughter growing up)

I upload some photos to flickr but nothing family related

 

[CGrieves]

All my photos go into my Google Drive (£7pm for 1TB), and from there are synced to my home desktop, work desktop and laptop.

If I'm using the Fuji, then I sometimes share directly to Instagram or Facebook via wifi to my phone.

 

[Phate]

not worried about theft, exploding drives or anything? Personally I would want at least occassional backups to another disk that isn't physically directly next to the 'backup'.

Not really. The NAS itself is buried within the house under floorboards, you would have to know precisely where it is to find it and its in a location accessible enough if I were to have a fire it could be saved.

Cloud storage I don't trust that much. You have no idea where your data is going or who is going to access it. Yes they might sell it as secure but how do we as the end user really know?

Exploding drive? As said to have more than one drive 'go' within 24hrs of the other is extremely unlikely, I have personally never seen this happen before. The worst I've seen is a RAID controller card going making the attached hdd's unable to access the data, never more than one individual hdd fail at the same time though. And this is in enterprise environments where my drives in comparison barely get touched

 

[CGrieves]

Cloud storage I don't trust that much. You have no idea where your data is going or who is going to access it. Yes they might sell it as secure but how do we as the end user really know?

We know because they are audited and certified to known security standards. Google for instance is certified to ISO27001 and SSAE16/ISAE3402 SOC2-II standards. Good enough for banks is good enough for me, and loss or unauthorised access to my data is somewhat astronomically less likely than someone nicking or tripping over my NAS box!

Exploding drive? As said to have more than one drive 'go' within 24hrs of the other is extremely unlikely, I have personally never seen this happen before. The worst I've seen is a RAID controller card going making the attached hdd's unable to access the data, never more than one individual hdd fail at the same time though. And this is in enterprise environments where my drives in comparison barely get touched

RAID isn't a backup solution though, it's a risk mitigation. I've seen enough RAID 1 pairs lost in my time. Even a RAID10 catastrophe. Even more so since the advent of SSDs.

 

[Phate]

We know because they are audited and certified to known security standards. Google for instance is certified to ISO27001 and SSAE16/ISAE3402 SOC2-II standards. Good enough for banks is good enough for me, and loss or unauthorised access to my data is somewhat astronomically less likely than someone nicking or tripping over my NAS box!

Tripping over? Where do you keep it? in the hallway? Mines under the floor!

RAID isn't a backup solution though, it's a risk mitigation. I've seen enough RAID 1 pairs lost in my time. Even a RAID10 catastrophe. Even more so since the advent of SSDs.

No it isn't a backup solution its a protection against single or multiple drive failure and gives you contingency (obviously depending on your configuration) - my data is a lot safer on the NAS than it is on a USB drive or 2nd hard drive which if they go, I have no contingency with.

Those failures you mentioned, I'm going to assume (especially with the RAID10) that they were in enterprise environments where the drives were read/written to constantly, all day long? Therefore its logical to assume they have a higher chance of failure due to wear/tear on drives.

NAS designed drives in a NAS thats accessed a couple of times an evening to copy new films to and back photos up to (and sometimes not touched for weeks when I'm at my girlfriends) has a much less likely chance of multiple drive failure. One drive going is obviously a potential but at max it would take 24hrs to get a replacement drive fitted to rebuild the RAID and carry on as normal. The chances of a second going in that time, highly highly unlikely.

 

[CGrieves]

- my data is a lot safer on the NAS than it is on a USB drive or 2nd hard drive which if they go, I have no contingency with.

It's down to how you assess risks I guess. I'd rather have important data on two single (JBOD) disks in different physical locations than on a RAID1 array in one location, but that's just me. As it is is I have my data on Google Drive, on my RAID1 work desktop, RAID1 home desktop, JBOD laptop, and an occasional backup onto a USB drive. My RAID1 NAS is for movies

Those failures you mentioned, I'm going to assume (especially with the RAID10) that they were in enterprise environments where the drives were read/written to constantly, all day long? Therefore its logical to assume they have a higher chance of failure due to wear/tear on drives.

Not particularly- I've not noticed any correlation between drive usage profile and failure rate. 99% of drive failures in my experience are logic (i.e. defective control hardware) or early bearing failure rather than seek/head failure. I've found that certain manufacturers seem to have a lifespan "profile"- for example in my experience, Seagate 15K enterprise drives either be DOA, fail immediately or last forever. WDs seem to be 100% reliable once you get past a couple of months. This is anecdotal mind you, and just my experience.

One thing I will say is that in 22 years in IT, I can only recall maybe a handful of enterprise-class drives failing due to age and/or deterioration. It always seems to be defect-oriented, and usually catastrophic. Oh and usually when I'm leaving for or on holiday

NAS designed drives in a NAS thats accessed a couple of times an evening to copy new films to and back photos up to (and sometimes not touched for weeks when I'm at my girlfriends) has a much less likely chance of multiple drive failure. One drive going is obviously a potential but at max it would take 24hrs to get a replacement drive fitted to rebuild the RAID and carry on as normal. The chances of a second going in that time, highly highly unlikely.

If you stay on top of it yes, it's very unlikely. On the other hand I know of companies that bought RAID enclosures, never bothered to configure healthcheck alerts, and never noticed the flashing red lights until they lost the array.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing, just that I always get a bit worried when people use RAID as an alternative to a good old backup. And without other components, RAID doesn't protect against deletion, corruption or modification of data....

 

[Phate]

Not particularly- I've not noticed any correlation between drive usage profile and failure rate. 99% of drive failures in my experience are logic (i.e. defective control hardware) or early bearing failure rather than seek/head failure. I've found that certain manufacturers seem to have a lifespan "profile"- for example in my experience, Seagate 15K enterprise drives either be DOA, fail immediately or last forever. WDs seem to be 100% reliable once you get past a couple of months. This is anecdotal mind you, and just my experience.

Weird how I've had more seek/head issues than anything else in HDD's

Oh and usually when I'm leaving for or on holiday

Well it wouldn't happen at any other time!

If you stay on top of it yes, it's very unlikely. On the other hand I know of companies that bought RAID enclosures, never bothered to configure healthcheck alerts, and never noticed the flashing red lights until they lost the array.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing, just that I always get a bit worried when people use RAID as an alternative to a good old backup. And without other components, RAID doesn't protect against deletion, corruption or modification of data....

Yeah I've got daily healthchecks with email reports and hourly snapshots running so I can undo most 'oops' moments

 

[Genoma]

- Where do you store your photos?
I'm overdue a NAS but doing well with a bunch of external 2TB USB HDDs and a USB3.0 HUB (my ageing motherboard only has USB2.0).

I import onto SSD, where I edit and sort the photos. Then they are copied to my main photo area on HDD which is organised how I want it.

My lightroom import profile also copies everything to a dump external HDD (immediate copy and archive of everything unedited. If I need more space I just go back and delete some of the older imports - 2TB rolling backup)

- Where do you backup your photos?

Scheduled daily backup to external Backup HDD.
Ad-hoc off-site backup to external Backup HDD (I have 2 of these which I rotate so I always have an offsite copy of all my files, not only photos).

- Where do you share your photos?
Flickr and Facebook, although I like Flickrs resolution, I hate their tooling.

- Where do you sell your photos?

I don't but am looking for suggestions


~~~~
So in summary:
Import onto SSD for editing
Import copy to Archive HDD
Permanent storage on Internal HDD
Backups to Backup HDD
Offsite Backups to Offsite HHD (x2)
Cloud "backup" on Flickr

Sounds overkill, but with external storage so cheap, why not. It's only 4 drives (Archive, Backup + 2 Offsites). My main 'want' is to replace my internal storage HDD with a NAS.

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

Oakey doke,

Currently I store photos on my PC and backup to the cloud with crashplan.

Photos get shared on facebook and flickr.

Currently I don't really sell the images, with the exception of the off print sale.