I don't mean saving your digital photos in the biblical sense. If you have bad photos they're going to hell regardless.

Empty your digital camera's memory card and burn the photos to a DVD-R disc. Same with the photos from your cell phone because I'm sure there are lots of cool ones there. Burning your photos onto gold DVD-R's are the best way of saving them for the future. There is NO close second place here. Everyone always brags about how cool and fast digital photography is compared to film, and I'd agree for the most part. However, the one aspect that is more tedious is the archiving. It drives me kind of near the edge to have to do this all the time, but it's the best method by a long shot. Take my word on this one.

I like to transform it into a kind of a Zen experience, where you put yourself in a quasi-meditative state and do a lot of them at once. Some of us even have our own choice composers to listen to as we merge into this higher plane. My own favorite is John Coltrane's "Live in Japan" double album. His live version of "My Favorite Things" always sends me directly into the zone. As the raven flies.

Anyway, get some of the DVD pages so that you can put them all in a notebook. Organize them so you can find specific photos easily. Some people simply organize them by date. If you're a pro, you use something like a photo database program like Lightroom or Aperture. In the big scheme of things, it doesn't matter how you do it, the main thing is to just get them onto the gold discs.

Do this as one of your new year's resolutions. Care for your photos. Ommm.

Story & Photos Copyright Larry McNeil 2011, All Rights Reserved