Storing Photos on Someone Else’s Computer

Wojtek Powiertowski wrote a pair of interesting blog posts on backing up photos and checking photos for bitrot. Both posts are interesting and include valuable tips for protecting digital photo collections They reminded me of another potential photo issue.

Back before I knew better, I stored my Nikon D40 photos in the cloud, which is better known as someone else’s computer. Back in high school, I came across Picasa and used that. Picasa was killed by Google, so my photos were then on Google Photos. When I launched The New Leaf Journal back in April 2020, I wanted to use some of my old photos on site (my oldest ones were from 2006). My good friend, collegue, and photography expert, Victor V. Gurbo, informed me that the photos had become low quality. I checked, and sure enough I saw what he meant. The resolutions were greatly reduced. Pixels showed. Good enough for use on a non-photography website, but far removed from their original glory. Remember kids: Be careful about storing your photos on someone else’s computer. Make sure you read the ToC and keep your own backups (you can then follow Mr. Powiertowski’s tips for ensuring that your own backups are in good shape).

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