Losing your Pictures - a cautionary tale

I know we're all about pictures, but let me start with a story about a record. Remember those? My buddy Gene loaned a 12-inch vinyl album to his friend Jack. Jack left the album in his car on the shelf behind the back seat in the Miami sun. Somehow a bowling ball ended up on it, resulting in something resembling a dish. (Now you can buy dishes intentionally made from records. Apparently, Jack was way ahead of his time.) And the point of this story? Fortunately for me, I'd recorded the album on my reel-to-reel tape so I still had the music. Fortunately for Gene, he could go to the record store and buy another copy. But no one else has copies of your pictures. There is no store to go to and buy replacement copies. If you lose them, they are lost for good.

How do you lose your pictures?

(We're talking about physical pictures here - prints, slides, film, movies and video. We'll address digital pictures in a different article.)

It is easy to lose things. The first and easiest way is to forget where they are. Do you know where your pictures are? If you don't, I hope this article will convince you to take the time and make the effort to find them.

The second way to lose your pictures is to have them in a format that you can no longer see. Consider 35mm slides or 8mm film without a projector or 8-track tapes without a player.

The third way to lose your pictures is to have them damaged beyond repair. Like the record left in the sun under a bowling ball, photographic prints and film can be irreparably damaged. Pictures like to live where you do, except in the dark. They are best stored in stable temperature and humidity, safe from water and fire. Does this fact surprise you - 76% of moms in a recent study by Sony Electronics "would take family photos and videos ahead of purses, jewelry and other valuables - even heirlooms" if they suddenly had to leave home.1 We've all seen the example of that in images from the Gulf Coast of people returning to their ravaged homes and all they wanted was the family photos.

If pictures are so important, what keeps people from doing something with them? I think it is usually seen as an impossibly big task and how to do it is unclear. In fact, this is exactly the reason Pixorium exists. (You were waiting for the commerical, right? Didn't want to disappoint you!) But honestly, we know the world of preserving family pictures is a foreign one to most people. It isn't to us and we're here to help you do it.

What should you do when you find your pictures?

1. Consolidate - Take some time and pick out the best ones, the ones you can't imagine being without. You don't need to keep every picture, I promise! Dump all those duplicate prints; you'll be amazed at how many of those you have.
2. Protect - Digitize the pictures you've kept. Why? A digital copy preserves the picture's image and allows you to share it without handling the original. Store the original in photo-safe materials - acid-free paper or polyethylene sleeves - which are available at most photo stores or online. Keep them away from areas with water, like laundry areas, leaky basements or attics, and out of places with high humidity or temperature swings. Also, store them off the floor and consider using a fire safe. If the physical image is damaged, don't despair. There are a number of things that can be done to save it. For example, a client brought us slides that had baked in the attic for years. They were all red. However, scanning software allowed us to recover the image as it looked 50 years ago and preserve the memory. Faded prints, torn photos, broken film can be saved.
3. Share - With your digital copy, you can make prints. You can create digital scrapbooks, notecards and even life-size cut-outs. There is so much you can do with digital images. The point is to share and enjoy these pictures and to know that you don't have to do it yourself. We created Pixorium to help people have fun with their pictures without having to learn how to use the technology. We're here to work side-by-side with you and your pictures.
4. Back up Your Digital Images - The article on preserving your digital images will address digital backup, but here's the outline:

• These are your pictures; you are responsible for them. Make the effort to save your digital images too.
• Make a local backup to prevent loss if your computer's hard drive fails. Back up to another drive or to a DVD disc. (If your hard drive fails, you may be able to have a service recover the images from the failed drive. But start saving your money because it is expensive and you'll do a lot of hand wringing as you wait to see what images they can recover.)
• Create an off-site backup. The simplest way is to make a DVD disc of your pictures and mail it to a relative.

That's it. Visit the website to check the dates of upcoming PixBees to help get you started on the Consolidation step. Call or email us with any questions or for help. That's why we're here.

Your photo coach,
Howard

1"June 29, 2005 - Women Outnumber Men 4 to 1 When It Comes to Assuming This Family Responsibility." Undated. 8 June 2006. http://www.923krst.com/Baffle05.shtml