Last weekend, Jourdan Tymkow, a wedding photographer in Vancouver was shooting a wedding at Burnaby Lake Rowing Pavilion when she discovered that her laptop was stolen from her backpack that she had left in her car. During the reception, she came out to get a lens and it was still there. By 10:30pm, when she left the wedding, her back window was smashed in and the backpack was stolen.

Along with it, over 2,000 images from two different weddings she had photographed over the past two weeks – images that she had not backed up.

Let me pause to say: BACK UP YOUR IMAGES!! Then, back them up again on another drive and once more off site, just in case.

“I totally had a breakdown,” she told one newspaper, “I have been pretty much crying ever since.” She is offering a $500 reward for the return of the images, as well as one of the clients whose images were lost that day. This is Tymkow’s first season as a wedding photographer and she states that she wasn’t able to back up the images because the last wedding was at a campground and it was “just the worst timing.”

She is now scouring craigslist and social media hoping to find the laptop or that someone will return the priceless images.

This is a good (and important) reminder that photographers, especially professional wedding and event photographers need to have a solid back up plan [no pun intended]. This not only protects yourself, but your clients’ precious photos. The following video is an excerpt from our Lightroom Organization and Workflow Workshop which is part of our Lightroom Workshop Collection on DATA SAFETY PROCEDURES: HOW TO KEEP YOUR IMAGES SAFE FROM SHOOT TO COMPUTER:



For more on keeping your memory cards safe with more back up and general safety tips regarding your cards, check out this article: MEMORY CARD BACKUP TIPS FOR SURVIVING ANY APOCALYPSE

These are the little details that may seem tedious as a photographer, but is one of the most important parts of a professional photographer’s workflow!

[Via NS News]