Three most important things about photography: Backup, backup, backup.

I bought my first real digital camera in 2004. Since then my soul has been filling, ever so slowly, with the existential dread of the coming Hard Drive Failure. Unlike the Singularity, which has roughly the same effect on my nerves, the Hard Drive Failure is easily avoidable. Actually, the loss of data connected to Hard Drive Failure is easily avoidable. Hard drives, like every other moving-parts machine, will eventually fail. But a good backup strategy will let you laugh these failures off like a bad Will Smith movie.

I recently found a great primer to backing up digital photos at Chase Jarvis' blog. Here's the abbreviated version:

1. Make your work ORGANIZED.
2.Choose the right STORAGE MEDIUM.
3.Keep a CLEAN COPY OF THE ORIGINAL DATA.
4.Make it REDUNDANT.
5.Keep 'em SEPARATE.

Good advice, all. Now I just need to practice what I preach and impliment a system of my own. I'll add that to my running list of New Year's resolutions.