When the Storm Clouds Gather

I was working at full speed finishing up edits on one wedding and loading images onto one of our custom flash drives for another. Then, in the same flash of time it takes lightning to strike signaling an approaching storm, everything suddenly stopped.

My work came to a screeching halt as the colorful images I had just been viewing were replaced by a bright white screen. I fell silent, but our computer filled this sound void with low whirring and a clicking noise.

Hard drive crash.

Our fear was quickly confirmed when we took our computer in to a nearby repair shop. Our hard drive had indeed crashed and was also unrecoverable. As one of our sweet brides put it, "These things happen, and they never happen at a convenient time."

Worrying and stressing over the crash wouldn't undo the damage, so we took a deep breath and slowed down. We actually have a lot to be thankful for!

We keep backups of our client work so all of the images of weddings, engagements and beautiful life happenings are safe and sound. Our clients are amazing—not only are they patient folks, they filled our inbox with notes of support and encouragement. We got a forced vacation! I don't remember the last time I sat and read and book without feeling guilty (for enjoying free time when there's always work to be done). Wow. We took our books and hammocks to the lake and didn't think twice about trying to blog or update our Facebook. What a needed and wonderful time!

So that's where we've been…in case you were wondering.

Today I'm back up and running at full speed with an even faster drive, and I'm putting together notes for a full post on easy, efficient and cost-effective ways to back up your treasured photos. Crashes will happen, but they don't have to mean more than a little extra cost, a trip to the repair shop and a getaway free from technology.

While the cord to our computer was yanked, we filled up what used to be the butter tray in our fridge with film and reminded ourselves why we love shooting. When it costs around a dollar for every time you hear that wonderful ca-chik from the shutter of an old medium format camera, you step back and really think about making your picture. Over canoe rides and campfires we've soaked in the places and people we treasure. Seems the hard drive crash was actually a sweet blessing.

"Depth over distance every time, my dear."