Ever since I lost many treasured photos due to AOL photos going down about a decade ago, I've tried to store my photos in multiple places.  It was my fault that I lost those photos as I received multiple notifications from AOL that they would be deleting the photos.  Some of the photos I lost were of my cat Coco who was my "soul cat" for lack of a better way of putting it. 

My husband and I adopted Coco and Chanel from a rescue organization about twelve years ago when they were eight weeks old.  I took many photos of Coco and Chanel when they were between two and six months old, but I only have photos of them from six months on.  This situation would bother me regardless of the fact that Coco got cancer when she was just four years old and passed away just shy of her sixth birthday.  We did everything we could to save her and extend her time on this Earth.  Not a day goes by that I don't think about her: 

A collage of Coco and Chanel at about six months of age:

Coco and Chanel age 2-5
So...when I think about backing up my photos I remind myself of what I lost.

There are many methods for backing up photos and people need to choose which is best for them.  I see many people storing photos on Facebook, but Facebook doesn't store photos in full size.  My two choices for storing photos are Pixabay and Panoramio.  I also back my photos up on a one terabyte external hard drive:

Pixabay is very selective.  In order for your photo to be accepted it must be flawless in their eyes.  You are also releasing your photos under Creative Commons CC0 into the public domain which is irrevovable.   Here are some frequently asked questions about the use of photos on Pixabay:  https://pixabay.com/en/service/faq/

Here are my photos which you are free to use and there are photos from all seven continents.

Mariamichelle's photos

For those of you who don't want to give up the rights to your photos and want to store them in their original form Panoramio might be a better option.  You can choose to let the world use them or reserve all rights to your photos.  The amount of space you can use is not unlimited but you can buy more if you need it.  Since not all of my photos are accepted by Pixabay, I use Panoramio along with my external hard drive to save my photos.  One feature of Panoramio is some of your photos might be used in Google Earth which some people like.

Here is my Panoramio account and all are Creative Commons CC0 :

Mariamichelle's Panoramio photos

 Do you have a system for backing up your photos?  If so, please tell me about it because sites go down and computers and hard drives crash.  I've been trying to make more hard copies of photos and create albums with the thousands of photos I take while I'm traveling.  Thank you for stopping by my blog.  I hope that 2016 is being good to you so far and will continue to be.  

~Michelle