Archiving photos.

[supermombritt]

I can't remember if someone on this site talked about archiving photos or not. My friend was wondering if there was a website that will archive your photos for you. IF there is, how long do they keep them on their site for? If we already talked about this, sorry. I thought it may be in photography since it deals with photos, so I hope this is the right place.

[crystalclark87]

Do you mean a site that keeps the full resolution of the photo, or just a place to store photos? Because photobucket.com is what I use. It doesn't keep the full size of the photos so I try not to keep everything on there, but if I get way backed up on scrapbooking then I do have stuff on there. I haven't tried to print anything yet so I don't know what the quality will be, but I haven't stretched them too much from the size.. anywho.. got off track a bit..
I know there are a few sites like photobucket where you can store photos. I'm not sure if there are any that keep the original size.. I don't think photobucket has a limit or an amount of time they stay for. I have tons of photos on there, and it's nice becuase you can catorgarize them... I have about 10 diff folders that are full of pics..

[lanz]

Walgreen's will actually keep them forever if you buy at least one single print a year. I had some pictures that I had downloaded to Wallgreen's for my mom when I was in Virginia. My hard-drive crashed right after we got home, but when I went onto Walgreen's website they still had the pictures I had downloaded and that was great because I had some of my son right after he was born on there.

[Alishaw]

but were they any good resolution-wise? there was a big push for a company out of Utah Valley two years-ish ago and they share the computer vault system with the LDS church. ANYWHO-they will store them indefinitely if you buy at least 1 item each year from them, EXCEPT they are not the size you upload. They are very small. I called and they said "well, there's no way we can house everyones full sized photos!" I asked what the point was then if I can't get them recovered the way I sent them in. They said that they are not a disaster recovery program (their video said "you don't want to lose your photos to fire or flood! HELLO) just somewhere to access them. So be sure to check into that.
You are maybe best burning them to DVD and putting them in a fire vault to multiple copies somewhere-grandma's, bank box, buried like a time capsule?

[Kelly]

if I remember correctly, Shutterfly keeps a full size file of every picture you upload... forever. At least that's what I recall from their sales pitch at CHA winter last year. :)
I love their services and their print quality is great. :)
-kelly

[lanz]

Alishaw, I believe they are the same size resolution as when you originally uploaded to them. Mine were.

[brookiewookie]

I've been backing up my photos to DVD's, but am worried about them getting scratched or lost or not lasting as long as I want them to. My cousin works at Pictureline in SLC and they sell archival DVD's that are supposed to last 200 years. I don't know the price (too bad they don't sell them at Costco!) but might look into it.

I've also heard it's a good idea to upload to various photo-storage sites, in case one of them goes out of business. I believe that winkflash.com keeps the full-sized files, and perhaps Shutterfly...maybe also Costco.com or Sams?? I buy enough at both places to have them store a lifetime of photos. :)

[supermombritt]

Thanks everyone. I will pass this onto my friend.

[Jamie Hamblin]

I have an external Hard-drive ... for my photos works like a charm.

[lanz]

I'm thinking a external hard-drive would be the best bet for me, I don't always trust the other hard-drives especiall since we lost a hard-drive last year and also a bunch of pictures that we hadn't backed up. It was a bummer. Lucky for me my dad had a bunch of pictures that he had taken and he made me a CD, so it was all okay in the end.