Hobbyists - what do you do with your photos?

[Gobae]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

Anybody remember (or still have) any of those 4.5" floppy disks?

It's unlikely anyone remembers a 4.5" floppy. While I could be wrong, I don't think such a thing existed. The common sizes (from oldest to newest) were 8", 5.25", and 3.5". After that, I stored my photos on 100MB and later 200MB "Zip Disks" from Iomega.

[cleamon]

Originally Posted by LoveDSLR

I only remember 8" and 5.25" FD. Yes, I can still read from 5.25".

As with any magnetic media, floppy disc, zip disc, digital tape, etc., the life expectancy is very low (comparatively speaking). The coating becomes brittle and will separate from the carrier. The charged particles lose their charge. A friend of mine was copying his old 5.25" to hard disc and the magnetic coating came off and ruined the floppy drive. So, don't plan on those to be a good solution even if you do have the proper drive.

Even "burnable" media such as CDR and DVD-R have an expected life of around 10 years.

My plan is to keep my images in the most portable format (high quality jpg for the time being) as long as possible. Even when I shoot in raw format, I also have a jpg. I already keep multiple copies (3) on separate external hard discs, with one of those in my safe deposit box at the bank. I swap that out every month or so. Should jpg begin to die a slow death as a standard, I'll convert to the next "new" standard. I have the advantage of being a software developer, so I can automate that process rather easily when the time comes.

I've been around personal computers long enough (since 1978) to know that nothing lasts forever (or even very long). I copied all my most valuable 5.25" discs to 3.5", and eventual those to CD and/or HD. When the next thing comes along (whatever that my be) I'll do it again.

As it is, I believe the current technology and the jpg format have a longer life expectancy than I do. These images will be of little or no value/interest to anyone else after I'm gone.

[Athas_orm]

I've only use 5.35" 3.5" and 3" floppy disks I don't remember a 4.5"

[rick020200]

I try to share my shots as much as possible. My top 10% go on Flickr. I shoot a fair bit "in the wild"--bands in bars, my kids sports, sledding, etc--where I end up shooting strangers. I always carry "personal" business cards with my name, e-mail address and a link to a flickr embedded page (primarily because my flickr profile has a 0, zero, in it which is tough for people to differentiate from an O, letter). When I've taken shots of strangers that I think they'd like to see, I hand them a card.

[Ariana Murphy]

I post my best shots on Flickr, and really enjoy sharing them here on DPS, especially in the Games and Challenges (that Still Life Invitational was awesome!). I also have a gallery on Imagekind (Ariana's Art : Home), a blog where I share some prose and poetry illustrated with my photos (Ariana's Art), a Zazzle store (Arianasart T-Shirts, Arianasart Gifts, Art, Posters, and more) and I'm working on a couple of books that will feature some of my photos. I enter contests, print a fair number of 4x6s for sending to friends and family (I'm a letter-writer), I make greeting cards and I have a few 8x10s framed on the walls of my office. That definitely makes me a "hobbyist", and happy to be so!

[Holly]

Hi,
It took me some time to move from 35 mm film to digital, since I made the move a few years ago, I love it and am having a difficult time finishing my last couple film rolls. I now have over 33,000 pictures, so printing isn't really an option.
I do however, make photo montages and add a little Motion and Soundtrack Pro.
I also have created several albums. I don't know about other companies, as I use Apple to create my albums. They have always turned out very well and delivery is always fast.
Try new things, dap in a little of everything.
There are so many possibilities, have fun.

[idb]

So "the plan" is to print all my best/favourites and mount/display them but not a lot of this has happened YET so the most recent photos just reside on my PC and the rest are on my external hard drive and backed up on DVDs.
Btw, I am of the view that you don't really have an image until you have a print.
Ian