When I am not blogging, I am in the retail photo imaging business (MotoPhoto – Tyler, Texas).  Most days in our imaging center we receive a variety of consumer questions about their digital pictures and cameras.  Digital photography is not well understood by many people, but it seems to be getting better. 

By far the number one question concerns how and when to delete your pictures.  This blog will hopefully take some of the mystery out of deleting photos and explain how and when to delete, including that dreaded process that few people seem to understand “formatting your media card.”

Let’s start out with the basics: media cards.  Inside your camera is a small, removable “chip” (that term seems to be what many people call them).  The proper name though is a media card.  In many point-and-shoot cameras the media card is located inside the battery compartment, next to the battery.  To get the media card out, you simply press on it with your finger (any finger will do) and it pops up and you pull it out.

The media card is to a digital camera what film is to a film camera. The media card temporarily stores your digital photos until you are ready to make prints, copy images to a CD, e-mail your photos, upload them to Facebook, put them on photo-gifts (there are literally thousands of things you can do with your digital photos). 

Some people permanently store their photos on media cards and keep buying new cards when the old one is full.  That’s okay I guess, if Uncle Harry endowed you with a fortune and money is no problem. But media cards are really made to be reused, over and over.

I usually advise my customers to copy their images often from their media card to another medium, more permanent form of storage like photographic prints, CDs, DVDs, or especially popular these days, online albums and backup services.

MotoPhoto offers an online album.  An online backup service that I personally use is called Mozy.  For a small monthly fee (less than $5), Mozy will backup your photos (and other types of files) to their storage vaults (probably located under the Nevada desert somewhere – just kidding!).  The online backup uses your Internet connection.  Often, that happens at night while you sleep.

Okay!  Back to deleting. When should you delete your photos off your media card and reuse the card to take more pictures? Only delete your pictures when you are 100% satisfied that you have made a backup of your precious photos  with some other form of media – like real photographic prints, a CD or DVD or an online backup service. Once you are sure you are backed up, you can feel comfortable deleting your photos from your media card and starting over taking more pictures on that same card.

How do you delete pictures?  With your media card still inside your camera, go the camera’s main menu and find “delete” or find the “trash can” icon (often a button on the back of the camera).  The camera will warn you before deleting that you are permanently removing (deleting) the photos.  You can delete one photo at a time or all of your photos with a single press of the button.  I always warn people that “delete all” is kind of like saying “I do” at your wedding.  There’s no turning back at that point.

What is “formatting?”  Formatting your media card is a process of “conditioning” the card and removing all data (photos) from it so it will be ready to use again. Your media card likes to be formatted occasionally.  How often?  I don’t know; how long is a string?  Pretty often though.

Actually, in our own studio (www.cafeportraits.com) we format our media cards before every portrait session.  That might be overkill for most people using a digital camera for personal use.  For sure, I would format your card before going on a vacation or attending a big event where your pictures are important to keep.  Formatting keeps your media card in tip-top working condition and often will prevent dreaded card failures (malfunctions) right when you don’t need one, on vacation or at little Suzy’s school play.

How and where do you format a media card? I am a big believer in formatting your card inside your camera.  You can technically do it using your computer, but I discourage that in favor of using the camera’s formatting function.  You can find this feature on the main camera menu and it is called, FORMAT.  Isn’t that handy?  The icon looks like this one below.

WARNING: formatting your media card is almost always permanently removing your digital pictures.  Don’t be shy.  Do it and do it often.  But, ALWAYS back up your digital pictures to another media first.  Or better yet, make prints.  Prints will be around for years to come.

What do you do if you accidently delete your photos and you want them back?  Do you live near a tall cliff?  Ha!  Just kidding!  Take them to a photo lab that offers media recovery services; like our lab at MotoPhoto in Tyler, Texas (903-509-3311).  You’ll pay for the service but it is normally well worth preserving your memories.  See my blog on media card recovery.

Until next time . . . take lots of pictures; and always backup to preserve your photo memories.
 

I was on the playing field photographing a kids soccer camp one morning recently when something in the bleachers caught my eye. Most of the kids were quiet and even a bit contemplative; after all, it was early morning. Who’s got time to get too excited on a hot summer morning sitting in the Texas sun?  But right there in the middle of this group of calm children sat the most enthusiastic and pumped future Texas Aggie I have ever seen.  He was anything but calm.

In photography, a group of subjects in a picture can create patterns or repititions.  Breaking the pattern makes for the most interesting photographs.  In this photo for example, ten of the eleven children are very quite and controlled, forming a pattern of sorts.  Our future Aggie interrupts the pattern.

You almost have to be from Texas, and maybe even from Texas A&M University, to fully comprehend this thing called Aggie Spirit.  Actually, come to think of it, Aggie Spirit is pretty much indescribable.  Can you imagine this little guy ten years from now at an A&M/UT game?  Watch out Longhorns!  Gig ‘em Aggies!

The past week has witnessed two sets of grieving parents in our MotoPhoto image center requesting enlargements of their deceased children.  In one case I personally had taken portraits of a graduating high school senior who was tragically killed in a weekend car wreck.  The other involved parents who needed our help in making enlargements and a slide show for the funeral of their pre-teen son.

These difficult encounters reminded me once again of the importance that photography plays in our lives.  As I looked on, one family gathered around a large screen in our lobby area.  They grieved and rejoiced together watching a DVD we had just created of their family’s (and son’s) life in photos.  It was a sad occassion to be sure, but in another sense they rejoiced at their son’s life in photographs.  What if those photos had not existed?

As I thought about the high school senior I had not so long ago photographed for his graduation announcements, I remembered this young man, his face, his vitality, his enthusiasm for life.  Little did I know at the time that each press of the shutter that bright, spring day was capturing and preserving forever a moment in time, and that those moments, stitched together, would be some of the last images that would ever be recorded of a young man who would die way too soon.

Often (several times a month), I assist guests in our store with a familiar story: grandpa (or grandma) just passed away and the family cannot find a recent picture of him (her).  The only solution, too many times, is a very dated family-reunion snapshot where Uncle Joe was standing on the back row of a family photo and we are tasked to try and pull off a “Photoshop” miracle by extracting a decent image of Joe to use as an enlargement for the reception.

I am grateful we can often pull off that miracle, but my encouragement for my readers: take lots of photos and always keep them safe.  If you are taking digital photos, back them up on CDs or even better make prints, which are the safest and longest lasting way to preserve precious memories.  If you have prints, have them scanned by an imaging professional or scan them yourself and preserve the digital files (on a CD or DVD) in a safe place.

Finally, love life and capture every memory you can.