You Have Had A Fire....Now What

[rsmith6621ab]

You Have Had A Fire....Now What

Hypothetical situation.....

You are a photog with 15 years exp., one morning you wake up to the smell of smoke coming from the converted mother-in-laws apartment that has been studio...everything you have shot in the 15 years is in that location...negs and prints......

The Fire dept has moped up and given you the ok to enter the building. Upon walking around in grief you look to one corner of the room and see a tuppeware container which has 11 3X5 proofs from 3 models portfolio session you had shot 11 years ago........these are the only prints that survived.

If not to add to your grief when you get back to your fulltime job the next day your boss says your being transfered to the other coast.....

How when you get to your new home would you start a new studio....how and what means would you use to get new models/clients to shoot with only the 11 proofs.....what would you do.........how would you start all over from scratch?

The reason I ask this is somthing simular happened to me(Water Damage) 8 years ago and now that I am trying to get back to an active status all I have to offer are 11 proofs from 11 years ago to prove my credibility.

Your replys are welcomed.

Regards

[IndyJeff]

I know hind sights is 20/20 but, anything you have that is valuable should be kept in a fireproof container or a safety deposit box at the bank.

I have often thought about renting a SDBox at the bank just for negatives. For now I keep all my prints and negs in a "fireproof" file cabinet. I would be so worried about water/smoke damage but the heat may be too much for them.

[TonyKInTexas]

You start from scratch. Go to modeling schools and offer to shoot for time and prints (they get your time and afew prints, you get prints). Go to wedding dress shops, wedding planners and talk with them. Show them the model shots and leave some business cards. Talk to bakeries and other people in the "business". Offer to shoot some photos for these people, again for the portfolio needs you have.

Do you have your equipment still? If not, decide which brand you are most comfortable with and start building. Buy quality over quantity and only buy as you start to get a need for a piece of equipment. The bare essentials: body, good lens or two and a good flash with off-camera bracket and cords. Build from there.

Shoot outdoors and in public locations to avoid the costs associated with a studio, at least upfront.

Good luck,

[PhotosGuy]

You Have Had A Fire....Now What I agree with Tony.

Re the backups Jeff mentioned, now's the time to start planning for the next disaster.
If I had a fire & If the backup hard drive, kept in a different location of the house was affected, I'd go to my mothers & get the backup CD's. On them are all my RAW files, which include RAW dupes of my best slides & shots of some B&W prints. I also keep some dupe slides there.
It's enough to start with if I needed to.

[bergeror]

I know hind sights is 20/20 but, anything you have that is valuable should be kept in a fireproof container or a safety deposit box at the bank.

Keep in mind that most "fireproof" safes that you see are really meant to protect paper documents. They will keep the inside temperature below the burning point of paper, but your negatives will likely be destroyed. The same is true of backup tapes and CD/DVD media.

You need to look for safes that are especially made for film or other media.

I think the best thing is to have negatives in a bank safe deposit box, high resolution scans of the negs in a different location (I'd go so far as to recommend a different city), and another set of the scans at home for normal use.

[d'homme]

Take a lesson from IT. We back up everyday and have backups in 2 offset locations. (Not saying you should back up everyday).

[antaine]

I use only digital. I back up my files each month to 2 x dvd-r.

1. I put one copy in my house so if I accidently delete a file it can be used.

2. I bring the other dvd-r into work with me so that if I have a fire at home I can recover.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

[BigRed450]

BTDT (Been There Done That) 16 years ago this past April, my wife turned the cloths dryer on before she went to bed. At 2am we awoke to the sound of the fire alarm. WE got the children and the pets out however all else was lost. Approx $30,000 worth of DR, studio, and camera equipment, gone in a heartbeat including ALL negs. Only a few old prints left that were stored in the garage.

What to do. Well, because it was my "B" job other things in the house, and the house itself, had to be replaced first. That left no money for photo stuff for quite some time. Eventually I worked my way back in, but it is a hard road. Moving to a different area will take you away from your clientel, but waiting 10+ years to start up again will do the same even if are still in the same area. If you are skilled it will take very little time to produce another portfolio. Do your best and be patient.

To protect against this happening again just make back-up copies and move them to an alternate location. This is cheap insurance not like in the old days when you only had 1 copy, the original neg.... And DON"T turn the cloths dryer on before you go to bed!

[MadMesh]

sad to hear... If your shootin digital, i always upload my most important to an FTP server in a remote location=) Even if the moon fell on my house id still have my photos... Also a external hard drive in a fireproof safe might me smart for theft AND fire. -MadMesh