By- Taninder Sijher, Vice President of Engineering at Sandisk
When French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765–1833) tried to capture the view outside his window in 1827 using a device known as a camera obscura, little did he know that he was laying the foundation of what would become an almost parallel universe. The camera obscura of course evolved into the camera, which went from the rooms of scientists to the market, through the efforts of the likes of George Eastman of Kodak. Today, it has evolved into something many use every day.
Overtime photography evolved from being a scientific discovery to a creative hobby to a specialised task to being a key part of a broader content creation ecosystem. While it is still a creative process which begins with the users pointing the camera at their subject and hitting the shutter button, modern photography is now part of a larger workflow, of which saying “cheese” is actually a small part.
Photography today is more than an image; it is content. Around it has emerged a vast creator economy powered by digital infrastructure, where storage can play an important role.
Content creation today is a legitimate career path, with millions of people creating content as not only a creative outlet but as a source of revenue. The arrival of increasingly capable smartphone cameras has democratised content creation, and the availability of low-cost mobile Internet connectivity has enabled creators to post more content. According to “The Content Rush: Inside India’s New Always-on Creator Economy”, a January 2026 study commissioned by Sandisk and independently executed by CyberMedia Research (CMR), approximately 75 per cent of surveyed creators across Urban and Aspirational India publish their work at least weekly.
The content has to be captured, edited, and stored before it is published. Photography today is also about ensuring that it reaches the intended audience. And that is easier said than done. Storage can play an important role here. The study indicates that a meaningful share of surveyed creators generate 5 to 10 GB of content on a typical day1. According to the study, if storage were unlimited, 64 per cent1 of surveyed content creators said they would make longer videos, 58 per cent1 said they would experiment more, and 45 per cent1 said they would save RAW files, if storage limitations were removed. In fact, the study also indicates that 41 per cent1 of surveyed creators report running out of space while shooting as a regular challenge. Imagine a wildlife photographer running out of storage in the middle of a shoot on a safari! Running out of storage midway through a shoot may be highly disruptive – and given the fact that so much content is being captured in very high resolution, we now talk of storing it in terms of gigabytes and even terabytes.
Having the right storage can valuable to a smooth workflow. Storage space is not just about gigabytes either. As many creators use different devices to capture content (often switching between phones, cameras, action cameras and even drones), a lot of transferring of files takes place, often on the go. A good storage device not only has to have enough space for content but also offer transfer speeds suitable to handle transfers of large amounts of data quickly. The speed of a storage solution can often help creators stay on schedule and capitalize on timely opportunities. The speed of storage can also play an important role in editing content, as it can help editors access and edit content more efficiently.
The content workflow does not end with editing or even publishing content. Content that is published online might become inaccessible during an Internet outage or might need to be transferred to a new platform or even reformatted as per legal or audience requirements. Social and other media continue to evolve, as are new formats, as can be seen from the popularity of reels and shorts. . All of which seems to be a far cry from Niépce trying to capture the view from his window almost two hundred years ago. Today, photography has moved beyond being mainly about lights, cameras and action in a film studio, or saying cheese to a friend with a snapper. Photographic skills and ability today benefit from an efficient workflow, and reliable and high-performance storage. Otherwise, it is unlikely to – pun intended – click.
