Would you grab a DVD when running out of a burning building?

My best photographer’s general advise to people – find those really special, favorite digital photos and print them out!

Don’t get me wrong – I love technology and digital images, music and movies. BUT….
When the flood waters were hitting the northeast US a few weeks ago, people grabbed Grandma, the dog and the photo album. If the house is on fire, who the hell is going to rummage through the drawer where they store the DVDs with all their photos?  But it’s possible to grab the family album. You might bitch about that big, bulky old-fashioned album whenever you’re doing the dusting, but – God forbid – comes a fire, it’s probably going to be a no-brainer to grab it.

I was recently watching a documentary on life after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan a few months ago. There was a scene of tables and tables full of photos that were found in the debris. People found photos of strangers, brought them to this make-shift memory lane in the chance someone would claim the fragile pieces of paper. These same people then looked through the photos themselves, hoping to find some of their precious memories. When they finally did find a photograph, they inevitably and understandably cried.

There weren’t piles of CDs or DVDs on those tables. Who would have even picked one up out of the muck and debris? Even if they did, what’s the chance that disc wasn’t damaged beyond retrieval?

I can list several other really good reasons for printing out some of those digital photos: gramophone, Victrola, super-8, Betamax, laser disc, 8-track, floppy disc, etc. Let’s remember that the VHS tape was king of the hill for roughly 2 decades. But then came DVDs and it didn’t take long for VHS to start disappearing – and fast.

CD’s and DVD’s have had the upper hand for the last several years, but Blue Ray has been gaining strength and now there’s the encroaching wave of 3D for the home theater. So what’s next down the road and how long until the DVD with all of those wedding photos on will be obsolete and unreadable?

Sure, you can keep everything on a hard drive, but you’ll eventually have to replace that old computer and hard drives do fail.

So that’s the lecture for today. Memories fade, as do the pictures. But better a faded photo than nothing.