Let me dive into a story describing why it's super super important to read all of my emails, but especially ones pertaining to your images when they're ready to be downloaded. But before I do that, let me go into a little detail about how I work. 

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I've been doing photography now for nearly 7 years full-time, and remember, I am self-taught. I'm definitely not tooting my own horn or anything, but I think it's important to remind you all of that so you don't judge me so harshly when you continue reading my story. I know..I know. 

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So aside from having erased a sessions images a couple of times in my entire photography career and wanting to smack myself straight across the face for doing it, I have had to learn some things the hard way. Like.....buy a heavy duty external hard drive that has enough room for a million images and more. So a couple years back, I did just that. I went out and bought myself a heavy duty external hard drive to back up my images to. 

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I do my sessions, upload them from my SD card onto my hard drive and leave them there to be edited. Once I edit them, I delete them from my SD card and save the fully edited session as well, on my hard drive. Cool. I keep most of my sessions for up to a year or even a year and a half. Let's keep going. 

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Okay, so, one time, I did some senior photos and they turned out beautiful. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I was super proud and excited of those images. 

 

So the time came where I had to send the download link to the mother of the senior and she received her images. In this email, I specify that images need to be downloaded within ONE week before the gallery is removed. Otherwise, a $15 re-upload fee takes place if they don’t download it in time. 

 

Well no freakin’ kidding, but just a few short days after I sent the gallery to the mother, my precious external hard drive >>where I keep ALL my photos, edited and pre-edited<< STOPPED working. This drive had ALL of my sessions from maybe close to 2 years, all of them, contained in this one external drive that suddenly stopped working........ Like, what in the literal crap was going on?! 

 

I was DEVASTATED. But a little relieved that I had at least edited ALL the last sessions I took and sent them off in their galleries, ready to be downloaded. Not even thinking about someone not having downloaded their gallery. Especially since I sent them all off a good while back, past the one week marker that I usually leave them up to be downloaded by the owner. 

 

Till one day......I get a message from that mother, the same mother of those senior photos, that asked the dreaded question I was hoping to never hear from those few last sessions I edited. Those last few sessions that got lost with my broken external hard drive. She asked if I could re-upload the gallery because she hadn’t read the email that specified that she needed to download the images..... * dies a little inside * ...okay...* dies a lot inside *

 

Needless to say, I had to regrettably tell her what happened to my external hard drive and oooooof!! I know it broke her heart. Shoot, it broke my entire soul that that happened to me. But electronics is not my forte and I didn't do it on purpose. Luckily, she completely understood and even apologized for not having read the email that gave her instructions and specified the time-frame her gallery would be up. She was super gracious about it, but it still broke my heart to have to tell her. 

 

Truth is, I’m still waiting on that external hard drive, since I sent it off over a month ago, to see if all my precious images can be salvaged! I ain't got no word yet, but I'm hopeful! Yes, my heart is broken and forever will be if all those images are lost forever, BUT, at least almost everyone has their beautiful images saved and downloaded.

 

Did I ever expect my heavy duty, super expensive hard drive to fail on me? - No. Do I have a new external hard drive where I’m backing up all my new sessions? - Yes. What is a hard lesson for that mama to learn? - Absolutely.

 

Moral of the story, folks -- read the damn email. Ya never know what can happen.