Photography is important to me and it is an area very susceptible to the digital dark age. I enjoy the process of taking photographs, digitally processing them and sharing them. I am paranoid about losing my digital files and have multiple back ups stored in different locations and still print many of my photographs as small prints or make photo books. I believe it is important to format shift. I have seen cassettes, videotapes, videodisks and floppy disks all become obsolete. CDs and DVDs seem to be nearing the end too, so I am using external hard drives now. The article did remind me to consider the issue of the loss of software to read files. It would be terrible to have all your files or digital negatives saved but have no means of making them into actual photographs.

It is wonderful that galleries, libraries and museums are digitising their analog collections. I can visit the National Archives of Australia online and see copies of my grandfather’s wartime documents. On a smaller scale I have scanned some of my parent’s slides but it is a very slow process.

creative commons licensed (BY-NC) flickr photo by César.Gutiérrez: http://flickr.com/photos/lasfotosdelcarajoese/5211889689%5B/caption%5D