Why I'm miserable about New Orleans as a Photographer

[Dem Agog]

I am a serious, serious amateur travel photographer. i.e. People don't pay me much for photos, but I've gotten some money and I have the big camera, lenses, etc. I went to New Orleans this past February for the first time ever. Froze my hoohaa off practically, but took 4 gigabytes of digital photos.

I came home and the photo holder (An Archos product) died disastrously on me before I could get my 4 GB of photos off. None of my photos could be recovered.

I cried long and loud (hey I'm a girl). My husband comforted me with the now sadder still words, "It's okay honey, we'll go back next year when it's a little warmer, and you can get more pictures."

I still tear up at the thought of all those photos lost. For me, photos are my memories. That's why I love to take them so much. And they were destroyed and are now totally irreplaceable...

:cry:

[BillZBubb]

1. As bad as you feel, remember this

Those NO residents whose whole family was in NO and whose homes were flooded have lost a lifetime of photos, documents, and momentos. Everything--their whole family history washed away. I can't imagine the pain of that.

Be thankful for what you've got. There will be more photos in your future.

[Dem Agog]

2. Well yes the "be thankful for what you've got" is fine...

I've been quite thankful, but I'm still allowed to be sad about losing 4GB of photos of this beautiful place...

Others are more miserable, I acknowledge that. Am I still allowed to be sad on my own though?

[lonestarnot]

4. Sad, but when you regain some perspective it's a small thing in the big

scheme of things. Sorry for your pics.

[Deja Q]

3. Now that's what I call keeping your priorities straight...

:sigh:

That's also a reason why I still shun digital. Too many technical problems. Film does't give you the type of problem you'd mentioned. All I will say is that I am a professional photographer with experience with both film AND digital and I'm sue we could get into delightfully heated arguments about what's better, yadda yadda... But I digress. Be grateful you didn't lose everything in that disaster.

Think of the folks who lost EVERYTHING except the clothes on their backs, wading in shit-filth water that - if they have an open cut or sore - could be LETHAL.

Oh, they lost everything. EXCEPT for the credit card and mortgage payments and it'll be fun to see how the insurance companies squirm out of this one, and you can bet your sweet bippy they'll do what they can (indeed, I've gathered some people have been lighting their very houses on fire as a means to get insurance money...)

Like my financial advisor says, YOUR LIFE IS BY FAR THE UTMOST MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU'VE GOT. Everything else is secondary.

That aside, I know how you feel about your loss. I've missed out on shots too. Though as I predominantly use film, and my digital camera uses CD-RW media, I've never had to experience the type of loss you had. (having used SD and CF cards in my PDAs, I HAVE had a couple of problems and that is just another reason why I'm not a digital convert yet...)