I loved taking photos, but I never really cared about saving them. I would just post them on social media, like from Orkut to Instagram - Yes, I'm that old.
I had used many phones - some got their screen shattered and I never cared to fix it, so I bought a new one. Similarly, some others got lost, some were stolen, some damaged.
I was scared to give my phone to get it fixed because I did not want them to look at my photos. And about cloud services I did not know.
I kept thinking if I had those photos back somehow or if I had saved them anywhere it would have been great because I had photos of my dad when he was a young man, he who is not in the world now; could have been nice to see those and also of my dog Tommy, Brownie and Hyena, and also of my cat Billoo.
And of many trips I'd made into places which were unexplored at that time, places which are now crowded now by tourists. When experiencing the moment, you never know world is changing so fast. I sometimes think of an alternative timeline - I first got my hands on a bike when I was 16 and I have changed so many bikes since then - with a little less shyness, a little less laziness and all of those photos and videos intact, I could have been a motor bike vlogger.
All of this began to change when I started working at Ente. Slowly at first, but steadily, I came to know how valuable photos were for my colleagues who were building Ente, and for all the customers who were using Ente. This was eye opening for me. I realized both that it is desirable to care for my photos, and that it is easy to do so practically.
Now I have started taking a lot of photos. I value them and back them up on Ente Photos.
Back in the day, my parents would show us their photo albums, of them playing with their childhood friends, photos with their favorite vehicle, photos of relatives and their wedding photos. These photos were nice to look at but the original color of the photos has faded and turned yellowish brown. Some photos are now sticking with one another and have gotten damaged. I wish I could have saved these photos too, now that I personally understand how valuable those photos were for them and are for me now.
It's a blessing that we now live in an age where we can keep our photos safe in the cloud. I want them on the cloud so that one day my future can see them without missing or regretting anything.