I've heard some married couples say that if their house was on fire, one of the only things they'd try and save is their pictures. Pictures of the kids, family vacations, and of course, their wedding. Makes sense to me!

One could only hope that your wedding photographer feels the same. But do they?

You see, there's this window of time between your wedding day and the moment you actually receive your pictures. And the only one looking out for your investment and protecting your memories during this time is the wedding photographer. So how are they doing?

I don't know. I don't have the stats. But one thing I do have is concern.

New wedding photographers are popping out of the seams. They get a digital SLR for christmas and by New Years they're ready to become a wedding photographer - probably to pay off the debt from the new toy. Soon thereafter, they create a web page and place ads on Craig's List with a price that's tough to beat. With the first contract, it's official. They are now professional wedding photographers!

As they are downloading the pictures from their first wedding to their computers, I wonder if it crosses their mind that one in seventeen new computers have their hard drives fail within the first year? And the stats only go down after the second. Let me translate. I wonder if they know that there's a 6% chance that they're going to lose your wedding pictures to hard drive failure.

Sure, a well written contract would stipulate that you'd get your money back. But wouldn't you rather have the pictures?

If you're currently looking for a wedding photographer, I encourage you to ask them how they plan on protecting your investment. While there are many acceptable data management work flows in the industry, here is one example from STUDIO 6.23, Wedding Photographers, Grand Rapids, MI.

1. The wedding day is shot on approximately eight media cards. In the event of card or camera failure, the entire wedding would not be lost.

2. The entire wedding day is shot with two professional photographers to add another layer of redundancy.

3. Following the wedding, all images are downloaded to two hard drives. The first is a partitioned server which essentially maintains its own back up. The second is an external hard drive which is not left plugged in. This helps protect against electrical surges or lightning strikes.

4. Upon confirming the successful upload of the images on two hard drives, the actual cards from the wedding are placed in a safety deposit box at a local bank. The images remain on the original media cards until the rest of the work flow is completed.

Wedding photographers should have at least one step in place to protect against fire. STUDIO 623 implements two layers of fire protection by having originals stored in a fireproof and water proof container in a separate location. In the event of fire at the office, the originals remain safe.

5. After the images have been edited, STUDIO 623 burns a copy to DVD which is stored off site. In addition, they upload the full size files to an online service which keeps copies in multiple locations. This protects against server failures as well as natural events including acts of God.

In the event of a fire, you would do everything you could to protect your pictures. There are wedding photographers who do the same. But there are too many who do not.

How can you know if your wedding pictures are safe? Ask. Then choose wisely. I suggest that it's worth the extra investment.