Lost something?

I recently saw a flier at the post office which made me a bit sad. It was put there by someone who had lost a camera during their vacation, and was a plea to anyone who found the camera to please contact them. It even included a hand drawn picture of a person crying over the lost memories. I wish I had found this person's camera, so I could call and make their day. I know I would be really upset if I ever lost my camera (or even just the memory card) during a vacation.

Okay, so to elevate this from the status of just a sad blog and turn it into a public service announcement, here's a tip to prevent the loss of your precious family photos if you ever misplace a camera.
Film camera: write your name, address and phone number on an index card which you keep in your camera bag. The first picture you take after loading a new roll of film should be of this card. That way, if you lose your camera and the person who finds it develops your film, they will know how to get in touch with you.
Digital camera: same deal, except you don't need to keep the index card, since you only need to take the picture once. Just don't ever delete it from the memory card (or internal memory) of your camera.

If this advice comes too late (if you have already lost a digital camera or memory card), there's one final possibility for help: visit the found cameras and orphan pictures blog. If you find a lost camera, you can send a picture or two from it to the blog owners for posting, in the hopes that the owners will see and recognize their pictures and you can get the camera (and the memories) back to them. As a bonus, the blog includes stories about the people who have lost cameras and gotten them back, which just might restore some of your faith in humanity (assuming you are having a bad day, or have otherwise lost said faith).

Have a great day, and hang on to your best memories!