Like many people, I have an old cardboard box containing dozens of old black-and-white and sepia photographs of relatives long since deceased.

Those tatty, faded pieces of paper recording a moment in time from anything up to a century or more ago.

Back then, photography was expensive and exotic and those photos were treasured, carefully stored and passed on to future generations.

These days photos free, accessible to everyone and barely a day goes by when we don’t take a photo or two – or fifty.

But with that convenience and affordability, comes complacency.

Many of us consider what will happen if we lose those photos, until it happens.

Anyone who has ever had their phone or computer crash knows that sickening realisation that you’ve lost years of precious memories; photos of children now grown up, photos of friends and relatives no longer with us, precious holiday memories – gone.

All it takes is a theft, loss, damage, dropping your phone in the bath or the sea, laptop hard drive crash – so many ways to lose your memories.

First things first

What you need is a backup strategy.

Please don’t stop reading, it’s not onerous and certainly doesn’t need to be complicated.

A strategy may start out by simply deciding to turn on automatic backups on your phone or laptop – most operating systems provide for at least a limited free backup facility. It’s a great start!

The best backup system in the world is useless if its not used regularly or is too complicated to use.

Turn on iCloud photos on your iphone or ipad or Google Photos Backup & Sync from your Android (or iOS) device – these will upload a copy of your photos to the cloud that is safely stored separately from your device. If you device is lost or damaged, you can just log into the relevant account from your replacement phone or computer and retrieve your photos.

These services are easily expandable, at a reasonable cost, beyond the free storage provided if necessary.

They are a great first step in your backup strategy, and if you stopped there, you probably don’t have much reason to lose any sleep about losing your photos.