Today is World Backup Day, which feels like the perfect reminder for anyone who works with photos and video — especially full‑time professional photographers like me — that our work only truly exists when it’s protected.

When you’re trusted to capture once‑in‑a‑lifetime moments, school productions, ambassador sessions, or full theater runs, “hoping your hard drive holds up” isn’t a strategy. Files are fragile. Drives fail. Cards corrupt. Life happens.

That’s why professional photographers build backup systems that start the moment the shutter clicks. Multiple memory cards. Redundant drives. Cloud copies. Off‑site storage. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the difference between delivering and disappointing.

For the Banks family portrait I created for SPAC’s Mary Poppins Jr. production, the final image was printed, displayed, and woven into the show’s world. That’s not something you leave to chance. Backups ensure that the hours of research, styling, shooting, and editing are protected — and that the work can live on long after the curtain closes.

So on World Backup Day, consider this your friendly nudge:
If your memories matter, back them up. If your work matters, back it up twice.