So what do you do with all your old photographs?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I bought a new scanner for about $100 at Office Depot. I am only using it for photos and documents so I cannot speak for any negative or slide scanning. It is extremely thin and lightweight, and is a USB powered scanner. It is a Canon, Canoscan LIDE 200. </p>

<p>It is a quick scan, once you learn how to identify what it is you are saving. I have mine set up so it will scan right into Iphoto, whether document or picture. I haven’t done a bunch of color corrections with photos yet, but I am still working with ones that aren’t damaged or color faded, either.</p>

<p>What I like about it is that it is fast and easy. My old scanner was painfully slow and even though it got the job done I couldn’t imagine how long it would take me to finish this project. With this scanner, I also scan in the kids old crayon and pencil drawings, and warranties and all kinds of things that you need but don’t need on your desk!</p>

<p>Because I subscribe to the off-site service, I am more inclined to throw away those papers since there is a digital backup out there. </p>

<p>I do like prints and how they look, but for my kids “albums” they will be virtual, for the most part. I will print up some nice quality photo books for them as gifts, but they would rather look at pictures on a computer or phone or ipod than in a bunch of albums. I am tending to prefer that format, as well, these days. It just takes up so much less space. (I took tens of thousands of photos the old fashioned way, so I have an entire bookcase of just albums for me before I went digital!</p>

<p>I also send slideshows for free (with a small advertisement) on a website called Smilebox. I can make a slideshow really fast and easy and they are always a hit with friends and family, and can be watched on all computer formats. For a small fee, you can send slideshows that have no advertising. For I think about $4, I sent a hundred holiday slideshows with dozens of photos (I could have had up to 400 pictures for the same price). Very affordable and fun.</p>

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<p>Frazzled, believe me, I have thought about this problem for over 20 years before acting on it. What’s good about this method is that you are better off if you even just start the system, and it is a cheap investment-just bins and folders. You may even have the stuff at home already to use.</p>

<p>As for reprinting photos, for the really special ones, I do go to a professional lab as I want to keep them forever. You can scan them to put on your computer with a home scanner, and then get them printed at CVS for 19 cents a print. I have files on my computer and also at a photo site and some emailed to myself along with hard copies of the CDs and the actual photos themselves. I found that the hardest part of all of this is the computer part. I so prefer the actual pictures. I get enormous pleasure in knowing that nearly every single picture, even the duds are in my big albums ( I get them at the Christmas tree shop). Though I know that is not as permanent as the CDs or computer files, I just find it more fulfilling to me that they are there. Someday, I hope to pick the best of the bunch and have them put in high quality paper albums. Right now I just want them all in something where I can find what I want more easily.</p>

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<p>I have a paper briefcase folder full of photos of acquaintances, one of friends, old family picture (one for each side of the family). They have not been put into albums yet, but this just gives me a place to put such photos. Now that so many folks are sending Christmas photo cards, and I so hate to throw out any photo, those folders are filling up fast.</p>

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<p>I was avoiding this thread. Now that I have read it I know why. My photos are in need of some serious work. Some are in albums, some in photo boxes, some still in the sleeves from the photo processing store. Over the years kids have pulled photos out for different occasions and not put them back. Those photos are in brown bags. Most of the photos and albums are in two large cupboards in our study. A few weeks ago I was reminded of the mess of my photos. We were in the process of thinking what we wanted to pack if we were told to evucuate due to fire. I took two really large heavy duty duffles and stuffed them with albums and photos. They were very heavy and it did not account for all the photos. Luck was with us and the fire switched directions and I did not have to lift those duffles. The study is out of the way and I have ignored the photos still sitting in the duffles. This week my D needed one of the duffles for her school camping trip. I emptied one of them back into the cupboard. The other still sits.
This thread reminds me that I really need to do something.</p>

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<p>The key is to realize it is a huge task. Take small chunks and it won’t be too painful. And that it will take you a long time to get through this task, but it will be worth it. Start with the newest stuff, first. If you are going to do a photo album, don’t use magnetic pages. They ruin pictures. I like the slide in pages for those photos. Label 2009, 2008, 2007, and start that way. Don’t put every photo in those albums, either. Weed through the bad shots, first. I save my negatives, but not everyone does. </p>

<p>I tend to scan photos in my kitchen, while I am waiting for the water to boil, or whatever. I might scan stuff for 20 minutes and then leave it till next time. I don’t do it every day, but whenever I have time. It is always on my to-do list.</p>

<p>Another poster said that the photos didn’t get there overnight. They won’t get put into albums or digitized, overnight, either! </p>

<p>Start small. Always jot down the name of the person in the photo. Year, if possible - if not, don’t worry about it! I have a plastic rubbermaid box for each kid and I don’t figure out what I want to keep, I just throw all the dupes in each box. Then, I will come back later and weed through them. Otherwise, I get stuck on looking at the pictures. </p>

<p>Think of it as massively overhauling all your possessions. It is kind of scary. Family memories are probably the thing that people care about more in a catastrophe than anything else. Get your family out, get your pets, some cash and papers and those photos! Everything else is replaceable.</p>

<p>I used to get my pictures on disc along with my duplicate photos when I had a film camera. It was time consuming to load those discs on, but it saved me a ton of time. If you have them, load them on your computer. (Don’t forget an off-site backup service - webserver, bank vault, etc.)</p>

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<p>Photo organizing happens to be the one area in my life where I am the undisputed Queen! I have always liked to take photos and knew that if I didn’t keep up with it, I’d end up with boxes of prints and no idea where to find anything. So, for the past 30 years, I have been using the albums and photo pages from [Century</a> Photo Products: Albums For Photos, Scrapbooks, Recipes, Coins and More](<a href=“http://www.centuryphoto.com/servlet/OnlineShopping?Dsp=10000&PCR=10000:30000]Century”>Photo / Negative / Slide Pages). </p>

<p>I always have an album filled with blank photo pages (the kind you slip the photos in). As soon as I get photos printed, I date the back, write something about the pic on the back, and in they go. Occasionally I would get a little backed up, but the fear of hunting through boxes kept me going. I don’t scrap-book – no time for the extras – just pictures. I keep different albums for memorabilia. </p>

<p>I DO have a problem, though – LOTS of vacation slides. They are neatly tucked into their pages, but it is quite a big deal to take them out of their slips, put them in the slide holder and watch them (and then put them back!). So we never look at them anymore. Two years ago we purchased a slide scanner, and I did about 40% of them in one summer. I am now stopped dead in my tracks and can’t seem to get inspired to finish the rest. Maybe this summer. I uploaded them into files in a second hard drive on one of our computers.</p>

<p>Whatever you decide to do, it will take lots of time. But it is SO worth it. I LOVE being able to pick up the album for a particular year and just browse, or be able to find a particular picture right away. My kids really enjoy the photo books, too. For me, hard copies of the pictures are essential – there will never be any problems with not being able to access or look at the pix. They are right here, available for viewing at any time regardless of the current technology.</p>