How to Preserve Your Family Photos
An attic full of boxes and scrapbooks is something most of us have and having all of these boxes of photos is not a bad thing but what happens if disaster strikes whether that disaster is something as bad as a fire or even a small leak in your roof which causes water damage to your images. For this reason alone, it is always better to take the necessary steps to preserve these images now rather than trying to recover the images later after a disaster. So how do you preserve these images?
Well, if you have physical photographs, the easiest and most cost effective solution is to purchase or rent a scanner for your computer. It is a very tedious task but well worth the time. Scan each of your images onto a computer and then try to organize the images by the month and year that way the images are easier to find later. Once all of the images are in your computer, copy all of the files onto an external hard drive and store this external hard drive at a relative or a friend’s house. This way, if there is a fire or a disaster, your photos are still preserved with the copy at this other location.
If you have VHS, Beta, Super 8, or other film style tapes, you may want to check your local Rite Aid, CVS, or Wal-Mart to see if you can digitize them to DVD or an external hard drive.
This advice is for photos or tapes you already have though. What about the new photos you are taking. Well, the best thing to do is make sure the photos you are good quality so take your HD camera (such as a DSLR or HD Camcorder) with you on all family outings and events. When you take your photos or videos, bring the camera back home and immediately import your photos and video clips into your computer. SD Cards are notorious for losing footage accidentally when you store your photos on your SD card or camera and don’t ever import your footage into your computer. When you import your photos, be sure to organize them. For instance, if I went on a family vacation from July 5 to July 10, I would come home and first create a file under My Pictures and title it “2015-07-05 Family Vacation to Florida 2015” this way I know exactly what is in that file when I look for these photos later. Years from now when you have a couple hundred of these files and you are looking for certain photos from a certain event, all you need to do to find these photos is search your computer for “Family Vacation 2015” and it will find this file much easier than you having to search yourself.
What I always suggest is that you copy these new photos as often as possible to your off-site external hard drive. When you decide to store a copy of all of your photos and videos on an external hard drive over a friend or family member’s house, you want to choose a friend or family member that you regularly visit. This way you can take your computer when you visit them and copy the newer files every so often. For instance, if I go on vacation and come home to import all of the photos on my computer, the following week when I visit my friend’s house, I will want to take my computer and copy the photos from my vacation (which are now on my computer) onto this external hard drive.
To help you understand this, if I visited my friend’s house on November 2nd and then I took my camera along to a family dinner on November 5th and then one of my family members was in a school play on November 10th. Well, when I go over to my friend’s house on November 15th for a dinner party, I will ask my friend if I can bring my computer. When I get to his house, I will plug in my external hard drive and start copying the photos from November 5th and November 10th. While they are copying, I can go enjoy the dinner party with my friend. Before I leave the party, all I need to do is go check my computer (usually the copying will be completed) and unplug my computer. Finally, I can pack up my computer and place the external hard drive back in my friend’s bookshelf or fire safe.
When you ask your friend or family member if you can store your external hard drive over their house, one important thing to remember is you can offer the same thing to him or her. So you can store an external hard drive with all of their photos at your house and in trade, they store your external hard drive over their house.
Another important thing to remember is to make sure your external hard drive is large enough to begin with. If you have lots of photos, I suggest getting a 4 or 5 TB external hard drive. A great time to get a hard drive at low cost is Black Friday or around the holiday season. Usually you can get a 4 or 5 TB external hard drive for around $100 which is well worth the money to preserve your photos and make sure you have a copy at a second location, just in case something happens at your home.
Though it takes a lot of time and some cost, preserving your family memories is well worth the investment. If you have lots of photos or lots of scrapbooks, try doing one scrapbook per weekend or one box of photos per week. Slow and steady is the best way to concurring the mountain of photos in your attic.
Once you have all of your photos in your computer, a great way to show them off to family members is by making a video collage through Matt Haslam Productions.com video services. Please contact us anytime at www.matthaslamproductions.com for more info.
Thank you for reading and check back for weekly tips and tricks from the new MHP Blog.
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