It's World Backup Day! Where are your photos?

Being in the photography world, we are often asked about backing up photos, particularly from a phone. Because let’s face it, our phone is now our camera, right? To celebrate World Backup Day, we’re sharing our personal backup process. Obviously, for our professional photos, we have a few more steps involved, but the options we’re sharing here are simple, yet comprehensive enough for almost anyone.

Before we begin - let’s address the biggest hurdle for most people: GOOD, SAFE, and PERMANENT STORAGE IS NOT FREE.

You know it’s true. Nothing is really free. If you are using a free online storage company for your backup, keep in mind that the company has to pay for this storage in some way: either through your privacy and personal information that they sell to others, a fee to get your photos back, or the policy that your account can disappear at any time. We’ll address this in another post, but for now, here are doable, affordable and safe long term storage options. We use all the below, but something is better than nothing.

1. Online/Offsite Cloud Storage - For our full computer backups, we use an online cloud service called Backblaze to backup not only our photos, but our entire computer(s), and/or any attached hard drives. Backblaze monthly service starts at $6/mth and you can save even more by choosing an annual plan. The biggest benefit of offsite storage is that even if you lose or damage your computer or delete a necessary file, your backed up files are safe and can be recovered. Downside, you must continue your subscription to recover your files. Note: I have had to restore a computer from my Backblaze archive and it was more than worth the annual price to be able to recover my entire computer within a couple of days.

2. Onsite/External Hard Drive (EHD) - External hard drives are easy to use, portable and very inexpensive. You can get one almost anywhere and back up a huge number of photos for less than $100. The downside is that these can be lost, damaged, or become corrupted. They will eventually fail, which is why you need more than one backup option.

3. Online/Permanent/Private Storage - We use Forever, Inc.* for our most important storage - our photos. Forever is permanent: purchase the amount of storage you need and it is yours virtually forever. No renting or annual fees. Forever is private: your information is never mined for advertising and never shared. Another huge benefit of Forever is that your files are stored at full resolution, not compressed as they are on other sites. What you upload is what you download. Forever also has a free app for iOS and Android that allows you to have your phone photos upload automatically to your Forever account. No having to remember to backup and upload your photos! Anytime you are on wifi, your images will upload. There are too many other benefits of Forever to list here, but please leave a comment or message us on socia if you have questions or want more informationl. We will have another blog post about Forever soon.

• This is the only affiliate link in this post. We truly believe that Forever is the very best photo storage and organizing system available. We are not affiliates for Backblaze.

It's tough days for small businesses

Doing our best while social distancing

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to every single person who has started a new project or paid off a balance during the month of March! We are doing everything we can to stay in business while still conforming to social distancing standards. 

As a small local business, we have been blessed to be a part of the Forsyth County community and build relationships here since 1993. We weathered both 9/11 and the crash of 2009. But this time, it’s different. 

Our current harsh reality is that we have lost about 95% of our income and with the extension of the stay at home quarantine orders, April is looking more than bleak. Each of our four family members is an employee and depends on the income from our studio. We do not have other outside jobs or secondary incomes. We also have two other team members we’d like to pay as funds allow.

However, we are not sitting and moping with all the new time on our hands, we’ve learned some new skills: We’re proud to announce our new online store! 

We are now offering online Gift Cards and each $100 Gift Card includes an added $20 BONUS! Gift Cards never expire and make wonderful gifts for family members, team members, employees, or are a way to save up for future portrait needs. Please consider supporting our small business with a Gift Card purchase!

We are also offering online signup for our Front Steps Project for the Vickery Community, and a new Digital Archive Promotion for previous clients. 

New products and services will be added as the need arises. What would you like to see in the online store?

We're Losing Part of our Hearts

I’m having trouble even writing this post. The past few years have been a time of transition for all of us at the studio and we’ve been embracing some parts and dragging our feet on others. As a person who usually is energized by new shiny things, this news has hit me pretty hard, even though I kinda knew it was coming.

We’re losing both Carmen AND Lori. After almost 20 years, these beautiful ladies have to move on.

Carmen came into our lives through our children’s Montessori school. She came from Columbia and was here to follow her dream to become an American citizen. She only spoke Spanish to the children in the classroom and through this immersion, the kids all quickly became fairly fluent. Carmen bonded with the students right away and her positive energy, love of life, and the Lord made her an integral part of the the classroom experience.

After an unfortunate rift between the owners of the school that even more unfortunately took place when Carmen had returned home for the holidays, Carmen was fired by the vengeful and fighting school owners and stranded in Columbia without a return visa. She called us, heartbroken, and we were able to give her a job with our studio so that she could return to America.

That was almost 20 years ago. Since then, Carmen has earned her American citizenship, married, bought a new house, and has been not only a part of our team, but part of our hearts and family. If you have a framed print or piece of artwork in your home, Carmen framed it. If you have prints or albums, Carmen ordered it. If your son or daughter worked at Whitelake/BW Photography during an internship, Carmen probably trained them, all the while teaching some Spanish on the side. Because Carmen’s house is further away from our studio, she is only able to come in for special occasions (emergencies on our part) and we miss her dearly.

If you’ve ever called the studio, you’ve probably spoken to Lori. She’s the bright and bubbly voice who patiently answers the phone and even more patiently answers everyone’s questions. She answers all the emails, designs marketing campaigns, orders school packages, keeps Bryan in line and SO much more. Lori came to us the day her youngest son started kindergarten. She dropped him off and stopped by in answer to our ad for a receptionist. I loved her positive energy right away and like, Carmen, Lori has become so much more than a ‘receptionist’ - she’s the office manager, coach, cheerleader, friend and family member we never knew we needed. During the last almost 20 years, Lori’s four kids have grown up, some have married, some have moved away, and she’s now a grandmother! She and her husband are excited to be moving to be closer to her 2 grandchildren out of state.

I’m not sure how we are going to function without these 2 strong, incredible women. For sure, Bryan will have some adjusting to do, especially in the new office. We will never be able to replace them, but then again, we wouldn’t really want to. We’ve been honored to have Carmen and Lori with us as long as we have and we treasure their friendship.

Last week before the world changed, we got together for dinner and I presented Carmen and Lori with albums with as many photos as I could find of our adventures together. We’ve lived through so many things together - 9/11, the Great Recession of 2009, marriages, divorces, 3 studio moves, kids moving in and out, college graduations, and now, a global pandemic.

While I was excited to be able to find a lot of photos in a short amount of time (I had a week to get this together), I was also sad because I wanted MORE. Why didn’t we take the time to take more photos together? Why didn’t we stop for more time together? Because we’re human. We get busy. We let other things become more important. And now it’s too late.

I had plenty of photos to create albums and for us to reminisce with, but it was a wake up call to TAKE THE TIME. Stop for a photo, even if you feel like you don’t look good enough that day, even if you are embarrassed to stop and ask for a photo, even if you think you can do it another time. Because maybe…..you can’t.

I made a little video of pieces of their albums and their reactions. Please enjoy and please don’t forget to take photos of the ones you love!

• Blayne White

Custom Artwork for Your Space

Take a walk around your home, what do you notice? Ignore the shoes that your youngest still hasn’t put away or the full glass of milk on the counter that someone poured and left to get warm. Forget the mess for a minute and focus on your decor.

Does your wall art jump out at you? Do you notice each piece when you pass by it everyday because it brings you so much joy? Or, is it simply background noise? Does it blend into the rest of your decor to the point that it might as well be part of the wall?

If you find yourself noticing the latter, it’s time to make a change. 

Your home should be your oasis; your escape from the world. It should be full of things that you love, things that warm your heart and make you happy. Personalize your wall decor with memories, mementos and keepsakes. 

At Bryan White Photography + Art, we have the unique ability to turn those memories, mementos, and keepsakes into works of art.

Imagine at your next dinner party, your friends comment on your new art piece only to look closer and realize it’s a portrait of you and your family. Your home can look impeccably decorated and be full of the things in life that make your heart sing. Let us help you.

This winter, we’re offering in-home and in-office consultations to help you conceptualize the custom art that will be perfect for your space.

Whether you want to take an existing photo and turn it into a hand-painted portrait, or develop a creative abstract piece with hidden personal details, we’ve got your back.

Take this portrait of wine bottles commissioned for the Timmerman family’s new wine room. At first, all you see is a beautiful painting which is perfect for a room filled with wine. But ask the family and they’ll tell you the full story. 

The painting depicts the Timmerman’s three favorite brands of wine, but on closer inspection, you’ll see the dates on the bottles are the years their daughters were born. Every last detail from the style of the bar to the way the glasses are positioned, was determined beforehand in order to create artwork that is exactly what the family was looking for.

But our custom art isn’t limited to homes. We create pieces for businesses to showcase their personalities and passions.

Bernadette Leonard of Berni Inc with her daughter, Jacque Leonard Hansard showing off their new art piece.

This piece was developed for Berni Inc. hair salon. Bernadette Leonard wanted her clients to glean the atmosphere and inspiration behind her establishment from the moment they walked in the door. With this painting, portraying iconic women of the past, she established the tone of high class glam with ease.

From a local bank wanting to portray their dedication to the community with art that showcases hometown locales, to libraries wanting to teach the history of their city through artwork, we have done it all. 

And we can do it for you too.

Now is the time to book your in-home or in-office consultation, and you can finally get your space to feel customized and personal to you. Contact us here.

See more custom art here.