Securing pictures

i do not like pictures, but ftp and others(friends) computers is good for me.

Gmail,
It's free, plenty of space for important pictures, information, offsite.
And probably going to be around for a while.

Just summing up the general feeling of the thread here, but the best way to keep your pictures secure is to save them in as many different ways possible. ANYTHING magnectic will die with a strong ass magnetic storm, yet paper and i wanna say negatives won't. A flood will destroy the paper and negs but not the physical data on a hdd, although the hdd itself will probably stop working. There is no one way to preotect your data, its all about diversifying your storage procedures.

i duplicate mine to my ftp seerver at work....which is then backed up on tape.

considering that any reliable servers on the internet are backed up you stand a better chance of keeping them for a long time if you include a reliable ftp site in your redundancy plan, along with burning CDs of them and putting them on multiple computers. the more places you have them the better chance they have of hanging around for awhile.

As Tedob1 mentioned, online backup to insure your own archive methods is a good idea. For instance, everyone has an ISP account with usually a very reliable company, some of which provide generous amounts of server space for client's use. Many people use them for their family websites, however the space can usually also be used for digital storage. On my Comcast account, there is well over 100meg of server space available, and they do all the backups. Check your provider's terms of service for how much you have, and how it can be used. But, like mentioned before, do not trust your hard drive or CD-Rom as your only repository for valuable photos, use multiple locations. I recently rescued three "keepers" I found scrambled on an original CD, from alternate locations they were resting in. The thing about "keeper" photos is that usually you can never get them again with your camera. :)