Dyes are used in recordable CD's and DVD's, and their life beyond 20'ish years is questionable for most brands. Additionally, they are quite fragile if handled too much, not to mention that the drives are starting to become unusual in new computers.
Hard drives currently offer the best cost/mb, as noted they have their own issues, but are generally quite reliable. I have quite a collection of external drives, and most of the failures I've had have been with the power supplies or other electronics in the enclosures, but not the drive itself.
If you want the best reliability, get an external RAID array, make regular back-ups and be prepared to copy everything to new media every few years to stay on top of the technology curve. If the RAID is too much money, get a pair of same size drives and save all your images on each one, either manually or with mirroring software if your OS supports it. Keep at least one powered down except when actually using it.
Finally, use data center grade drives instead of the consumer grade drives seen at the box stores, if the budget allows. The price will be higher and the size smaller, but they are more reliable.