PHOTOGRAPHY
Back up: Ideally, you want to back up your photos in three locations, Cuillo says, but many people end up with only two: one on-site and one off-site. You want to have these backup copies of your photos in case of technology failure, power failure, fire, robbery or natural disaster. On-site, you can use an external hard drive or another form of storage. Cuillo likes to use a product called Picture Keeper. It’s a small stick that automatically backs up your images when you plug it in. Off-site, you can use cloud storage. There are many options, including PhotoSync, Backblaze, CrashPlan and Google Photos. Cuillo recommends reading more about the storage services online or consulting with your photo organizer to find the best one for you. For extra photo security, use a third backup option. This could be another of the above options or a storage device, such as the Picture Keeper, that you can keep in a safe deposit box and update on a regular basis. 3. Categorize: You can organize your photos in any way that works for you, Cuillo says, but a standard method is by year and then by month. You can set up a system on your desktop computer with folders for each year, and within th...
Digitize and Back Up Your printed photos, home movies, treasures and memorabilia are just as vulnerable as your digital images that haven’t been backed up. Until you digitize your physical collection, these memories could be lost through fire, flood, natural disasters, human carelessness, natural decay or an unexpected tragedy. This is why once your sorting is done, the next step is to scan all the photos — and your index cards if you want — and put the digital images in cloud storage. This is the safest place for your family’s photos, as discs and flash drives can get just as lost as the physical copies.
Identify the Keepers Many professional photo organizers use a simple acronym I developed called the ABCs to organize and identify which photos to keep and which photos to toss. “A” is for “album”: These are the photos that belong in an album, and the memories you would mourn if you lost them. These are the pictures that you’ll want to digitize, back up, share and display. It doesn’t mean you’re going to put all these pictures into albums; it just means they are album-worthy. They are the best of the best! “B” is for “box”: These photos are the extras that support your best. They are the ones you aren’t ready to part with, but want to have access to at some point in the future. These photos will be archived for safekeeping but not necessarily digitized. “C” is for “can”: Yes, you can repurpose these photos — or throw them in the trash. Your collection is filled with doubles, triples and really bad photos. If your photo doesn’t fall into one of the above categories, then it’s a “C” photo. I encourage you to be brutal here and set a goal to fill a garbage can with these! “S” is for “story”: Does the photo tell a story? These pictures play a significant role because there is somet...
Frame a few. Don’t forget to display some of your favorite photos! You can them hang in frames around the house, and they will undoubtedly become a favorite conversation starter. I recommend printing out the scanned version of these photos and then keeping the originals stored safely in a photo album. Poisonous UV rays are likely to creep through windows and shine upon the photos you have on display, so keep the originals safe. If you take the steps necessary to properly preserve your family history today, future generations will also be able to take part in the joy and revelation that comes with untangling the mysteries of the past. Not only is it amusing to look back on the ludicrous trends and hairstyles, but these photos also provide a sense of connection to our past and our future. Our personal family histories connect us to the people who came before us and make sense of the world we are living in now.
Compile your photos in a safe album. Today you have many choices for photo albums. You can still purchase traditional styles that allow you to place the actual photo in a photo-safe sleeve or a scrapbook album. Those types offer the chance to be creative and decorative. The key is to make sure you are purchasing photo-safe albums. I use Creative Memories albums, but I also love the variety and look of albums from Kolo.
Create a digital backup. Before putting your photos in a new nonmagnetic photo album, consider scanning them. Doing so will guarantee access to your history should an accident or the natural progression of time destroy the original prints. Once they’re scanned, you have the option to create digital scrapbooks that you can share with family and friends.
Jot down details. Preserving the written knowledge is just as important as preserving the actual photos. Make sure to note dates and corresponding info as you peel photos out of albums. It’s important to know the timeline of these photos as well as who or what the subjects are. You can use index cards to record this information until you can provide a new home for your photos, or use an archival pencil to write information on the back of the photos themselves. If you find additional documents that are crucial to the story behind a photo, like notes, birth certificates or newspaper clippings, keep them with the photo so that you can place them side by side in the new album.
Remove stuck photos (if you can). So how do you get these photos out of the dreaded magnetic album? First, I don’t recommend using anything resembling a knife. This practice risks further damage since just one slip could slice through an entire photo. Instead, use dental floss. Just lift one corner of your photo and gently saw the dental floss back and forth underneath until it becomes unglued. If a photo is especially difficult to peel off the sticky paper, you can use a hair dryer to heat up the glue and melt it into compliance. Keep in mind that if the photos in these albums are more than 60 years old, the damage has likely already been done and taking them out could cause even more irreparable harm. Consider the magnetic album to be the final resting place for antique photos.
The emotional rule of thumb. Practical rules apply in photo organizing, but the fact is that this is an inherently subjective process. I tell my clients to go with their gut when choosing which photos to keep. If that blurry photo best captures the feel of the event, then that’s the one to keep. Choose a funky little snapshot that brings you right back to that day over a gallery-quality image that stirs no emotion whatsoever. Choose the one or two shots that make you feel the ocean breeze and smell the coconut oil, and confidently toss the ones that don’t blow your hair back. And even if you know your mother would be embarrassed by a certain picture of her, if it captures a facet of her personality that you love, then keep it.
Now don’t panic. I’m not going to tell you to toss out all of your photos. But to truly honor your memories, you’re going to have to extricate the most precious images from that stack of space wasters. And, like any organizing project, if it feels daunting to do all at once, do it just a few minutes a day or one box at a time, and I promise that little by little, you’ll get it done.
Knof says that she didn’t want the back wall of the family room to get lost, so she created a gallery wall out of black-and-white photos to add depth and interest. “Since the homeowners recently got married, they had all these wonderful professional photographs to choose from,” she says. Thirty-two 8-by-10-inch framed photographs line the wall in a grid layout. A vintage-inspired trunk bar and a pair of distressed leather stools complete the scene.
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