What will become of our photo’s?

I often wonder what will become of the hoard of photo’s I have started to keep on my laptop. Since I have become hooked on Instagram, I have taken photo’s at a startling rate. There is barely a day that goes by that I don’t at least take one photo and then I might post countless the next day.

When I think back to the days of 35mm camera’s, I remember that photo’s were generally taken on special occasions and on family holidays. Think back to old photo albums and they mainly consist of cheesy snaps on the beach, kiddies birthday parties and trips to the zoo and the like. Now we take photographs all the time without even thinking about it and sometimes for no reason at all. Just because we can and it has become second nature to most people now, especially with clever camera’s on our phones. I am often seen launching myself across the room to grab my phone to take a snap of something that is crucial to my photo collection and that I feel will capture the moment forever.

Thinking more in depth about it though worries me quite frankly. A few months ago my husband had to clear down a staggering amount of photo’s from our desktop computer. There was something like 33,000 shots clogging up the hard drive and it took him a LONG time to whittle them down. Admittedly though our super clever and extremely annoying computer had duplicated some photo’s recognising their faces, thus multiplying the collection – this was not helpful nor wanted.

I have had an iPhone now for nearly four years and I can’t imagine life without one, or at least some sort of smartphone. I just can’t see taking photo’s as being a fad like Facebook for instance. Facebook doesn’t really interest me too much these days, apart from still enjoying a good nosey at people’s pictures. I can’t imagine anyone would ever get bored of family shots. There is always the risk of losing or damaging my phone and it wasn’t until recently that I synced my newish phone to my laptop meaning that all the data on my phone is stored on there as well. More and more I am having to delete pictures from my phone as it won’t let me take anymore. There is always a part of me that feels wary about deleting them from my phone, even though I know they are backed up. It’s just what if?

So then if the photo’s are all being kept electronically then there is always the prospect of losing them and them being wiped forever. These type of thoughts fill me with dread and would be simply devastating, you know thinking about all of the baby pictures that mean so much. We have our hard drive backed up and ‘cloned’ I am told and we have something called a time machine doing something as well. Clued up aren’t I? cough. It’s just as well my husband seems to know what he is doing.

However, do you think about what will become of our precious photo’s? In years to come we won’t be sat down browsing through the old photo albums. We’ll need to take a week off just to look through the slideshows on our computers. Fast forward twenty years and I can imagine hard drives stacked up to the ceiling.

Just the fact I am discussing this means that I know I need to start actually ordering some photobooks so that these memories are actually in print. It just seems a mammoth mission and although I have a few photobooks already and have made them for family, I do find them a faff to do. They always look easy but I usually end up spending way too much time trying to arrange the pictures into a sensible layout that I’m happy with. Having said all that, I know that I must put this down on my already extensive to do list. I just might need a good shove.

Have you had enough of the word photo yet? I know I have…