Don't let your memories rot - make them accessible

Are you going to leave your most cherished memories to rot?

 
By Daniel Roberts,
OPUSalbums

We spend our lives building up a file of memories – some good – some bad – some to be relished – some to be learned from.  In photography we have found a technique for recording them so that we can go back over them ten, twenty, forty years later.   In retirement, when one may have more time to reminisce and less strength to go on adventure, what better pastime can there be than going back over our photos and thinking “That was when …” – “I’d forgotten about him – I wonder what’s he doing now..”, or “Wasn’t she anamazing lady”.

That presupposes one thing.  - That those photos are readily available and capable of being read.

Go back 40years.  Chances are that you have some regular photo albums, a few shoe boxes full of uncatalogued photos, several dozen canisters of transparencies (for that projector that has long since gone) and a few hundred little plastic boxes full of the transparencies that they came back from Kodak in.  I am not going to talk about those unreadable super-8 films and a pile of VHS video tapes.  May I suggest that there is only one of the above media that you are going to look at regularly – the photo album.  Why – because they are visible and accessible.  The shoeboxes of prints probably come next – a poor second.

Is history repeating itself?  The number of photos taken has risen exponentially.  Indeed we spend some of our most cherished moments viewing that unforgettable moment through a viewfinder or LCD.  Then what?  View the thumbnails – select the good ones – and what next?

Leave them on the computer.  Sort of visible for a time – but awaiting a hard disk failure.

Transfer them to CD/DVD – invisible (therefore as inaccessible as the old trannies) – and who knows when your computer will no longer be able to read a CD.  (In my loft I have a box full of 5¼” floppy disks full of valuable information).

Upload them to Flikr or another on-line service. . These services come and go with monotonous regularity.  Do you really think they will be round in 40 years time?  Those memories &ndash not only inaccessible – but LOST!

 
So – what’s the answer?  Back to the old photo album.  And using your computer it’s so much easier.

Take your photos, select the best and assemble into a story.

Edit the photos if necessary – and lay them out into pages (we recommend Fotoslate4) – and add text.

Print them at home on your own inkjet printer (quicker and more flexible than an outside photo book service).

You have a neat, accessible permanent book, which you can label and file to look at whenever you like.   Quick – easy and effective.

URL: Keep your photos visible and accessible

 
A thought - Only God knows your future and mine.