What are the family possessions that you treasure the most? It could be many things definitely and different families may have different things that they treasure the most. But have you thought about photographs as one of the most treasured family possessions too? I am sure many of you will say yes, but there could also be many who take it for granted. Will you cry when your $20K watch is stolen? Sure you will, it’s a lot of money. But you may be able to buy the same one again. What about photograph? Have you cried before when your hard disk crashed and you lost 2 year worth of photographs including those taken during one of your most memorable vacations or those taken at your daughter’s first birthday party, your boy’s baptism ceremony, your daughter’s first day at school and your parents’ 25th wedding anniversary?
Many of us take photographs for granted especially in this digital photography age. Unlike the old days when you have to print the photos in order to see them and you get to keep the negatives too. The negatives sound like the backup of your photographs, don’t they? Do you belong to the group of people who just keep the photos taken inside your memory card in the camera and continue to leave them there for many months before you download them to your computer? Do you back up your hard disk on a regular basis? Do you print your photos?
So, if you are like me who treasure photographs as one of the most valuable family possessions, here are the things, in no particular order, you can do to preserve your family memories:
- Scan your old family photos
We live in a very humid part of the world. If you don’t store your old family photos properly, the humidity may damage them over the years. The use of the slip-in album may also cause damage to the photos after many years, as the photos may stick to the plastic sleeves. Flatbed scanner is quite affordable nowadays and can produce a decent quality digital file. Get one and start scanning your old family photos, including those from your grandparents and parents. If you have large collection of negatives or slide films, you can opt to purchase the scanner that is capable of scanning films too. There are good options from both Canon and Epson and they are more affordable nowadays. - Print your photos
OK, I am not suggesting to print ALL your photos, even though you are free to do so, but we all have some photos that we really like. Print these photos that you really like. Frame them and hang them to grace your home or office. Print them in different sizes too and you can keep some in a photo album. You can also print a collage that tell a story.
You can opt to send your digital files to a photo lab for printing of you can get one of those affordable home photo printers. I would recommend to get one of these that is capable of printing up to A4 size as it is very convenient when you want to print your photos at any time. Get the all-in-one machine if you want, so you can have the same unit for printing, scanning and copying. You can still opt to print at a photo lab especially when the volume is big.
I had a chat with one of my photography mentors last week and he shared with me his painful experience when he lost some of his important photos when his hard disk crashed but was comforted a little bit because he had already printed them before. - Avoid direct sunlight
Hang your framed photos on the wall that does not have direct sunlight. The sun’s UV rays can fade the photos over the years. If you want, you can also opt to have glass or acrylic with UV protection for your frame. They are more expensive, but if your photos are very valuable, you may want to opt for this. - Download your photos to your computer after each photo shoot
Make it a habit to download your photos taken using your digital camera to your computer after each photo shoot. Do not keep them inside the memory card in your camera for a long time. This will ensure you have the photos safely stored on your hard disk at home. - Back up your hard disk
The price of hard disk has fallen a lot and will continue to fall as the technology progresses. They become more affordable. For the same amount of money you spend two years ago, you may be able to get a hard disk with double capacity storage. Once you have downloaded the photos to your computer, make it a habit to back them up too to your other / external hard disk. Do not back up to the other partition within the same hard disk, but always back up to another physical hard disk. Run another back up process every time you have finished processing your photos. You can also run a scheduled back-up process. The frequency of it depends on your need and how often you make changes. - Create a photo album / book
Many photo labs now offer the service to create a photo album or photo book for you. Consider this option if you do not want to have those traditional prints. You can design your album / book yourself by arranging the photos nicely, adding text and other elements you like. You can now personalize your album / book yourself. - Get a dry cabinet for storage
The advantage of using a dry cabinet is that it has the electronic control for humidity and temperature and it’s also becoming more affordable these days. Get one to store your albums, photos, CD, DVD and also your camera and lenses. You can get one from your camera shop or CarreFour.
Hope these are useful everyone.
5 more days to go !! Have you voted today? Have you heard about Singapore Blog Awards 2010? I am one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Best Photography Blog category. If you like this blog and you have a moment to spare, I would appreciate if you could vote for me. Voting is open until 30 June 2010.
- Voting is open to everybody. For International voters, just use your passport no or ID no during the registration. They need your ID no for verification in case you win the prize for voters.
- Please go here to vote: http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/category/ .
- Click the Best Photography Blog category and click Vote for my blog.
- You can vote everyday even for the same blog. One vote per day per category. So, keep voting please if you can. Thank You! 🙂
- They have prepared some prizes for the voters too : http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/about/prize.html.
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