No Strangers Allowed

Our life story.  Have you thought about your life story?  Everyone has a life story, some are shorter than others but still filled with wonderful memories. 

Photos are a fabulous place to review and enjoy those life moments again.  But what happens when your photo collection contains photos of people that only your late grandmother knew their names and family connections?  I’ve seen many nameless faces in photo frames and albums in my local antique store. 

When I look at these lovely unwanted and unloved photos, I’m troubled over the loss of their life story. I wonder where do they belong, will their life story be missed, why did they have this photo taken, did they spend hours getting ready for the photo, was the photo taken in their home or did they travel to another town hours away or did they pinch their pennies and save their money so that they could afford this photo? Did they ever image that their treasured photo would be forgotten and discarded in a pile of vintage memorabilia and that they would become the stranger in the box?

The Strangers in the Box

Come, look with me inside this drawer
In this box I've often seen
At the pictures, black and white
Faces proud, still and serene.

I wish I knew the people
These strangers in the box
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among the socks.

I wonder what their lives were like,
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone would have taken time,
To tell who, what, and when,
Those faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away.

Make time to save your pictures
Seize the opportunity when it knocks
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

 Author: Pam Harazim

Come and join us on Sept 26^th for tips and information on how to avoid the Strange in the Box syndrome from afflicting your family. 

www.saveyourphotosday.com

Save Your Photos Day - Sept 26th, 2015

Did you know there is an International Save Your Photos Day?

Sept 26th 10am until 4pm;
Badenoch Community Centre
Puslinch, ON

Probably not because this is only the second year for this annual event. It is supported by the Save Your Photos Alliance.

About Save Your Photos Day
This international event is for people who love their photos and appreciate the fact that photos tell our stories and that every life story is worth preserving and sharing.

Photography has changed so much lately with so many additional challenges.  The reasons why we take photos today has not changed but the number of photos we take has increased significantly.  People are feeling overwhelmed, not only with their wealth of digital photos but also with their print photos, slides, VHS and camcorder tapes and film reels that are hiding in their closet or they have inherited.

Save Your Photos Day was started as a way to provide education and tools to help people organize, preserve, share, restored and protect their treasured memories from (heaven forbid) unforeseen loss from large and small accidents, fire, floods, computer crashes, etc.

Event Details
Our event is being held on Sept 26th, admission is free and it begins at 10am and ends at 4pm at the Badenoch Community Centre in Puslinch, ON.  We have numerous guest speakers who are experts in their field, plus free photo scanning, free kids portraits and more.  Keep watching for more blog updates over the next few weeks.

So stay tuned for more Save Your Photos Day info! 

If you are unable to attend our event, 

you can check out the Save Your Photos Alliance website at

www.saveyourphotos.org for additional locations.

Click Away!

Memories aren’t quite as clear with candid shots. Sometimes friends and family don’t even realize we’ve taken the picture until they see it in print or uploaded to Facebook.

What they don’t realize is that we didn’t take “that picture,” we captured the moment.

Some pictures are like a yearbook; they serve a purpose. They record the facts. They are proof of a birthday, a grand opening, a holiday dinner, or graduation. So they serve a purpose and it’s important to take those pictures and record the events of our lives.

But the candid shots…that’s where we live.

In the candid shots of our families we see the laughter, the teasing, the struggle, and the triumph of our lives. The candid shots hold the details of who we are. Simply by capturing these moments, you tell a deeper, more complete story of the members of your family.

So, click away! Capture a moment while the family tries to organize themselves for a group photo. Get the shot of the kids all sitting on the couch playing video games... Snap away and forever record the little moments in between the big events in the lives of your family so future generations will truly know their lineage.

Downsizing Your Parent’s Photos

Back in the day, our parents purchased a roll of film, loaded their cameras, shot the pictures, and had them developed. Then, they would go home and pop the photos into those horrible “glue back” photo albums, but at least they got into an album.

There are two problems with the scenario above:

1. ALL of the photos went into an album, not just the ones that told the story. The blurry ones, bad ones, and the seemingly random photos that don't tell a story are there, too. Many of them are cluttering up the BEST of your family’s memories.

2. More than likely, the photos in the albums are the only ones that exist. This poses a problem because most families have more than one child.

So what are you to do? Below are some suggestions on how to go about downsizing your parents' photos:

• First of all, get the photos out of those “glue back” albums if they are in that type of album. (Keep them in the same order that they were in the album).
• Once each album is empty, go through the photos one at a time. Discard any photo that is blurry, bad, or simply does not tell a story. For example: landscape pictures are usually boring when no human is there to liven it up. GET RID OF THESE PICTURES! If you choose, keep only a few of the best. This process is referred to as the sorting process. We suggest you sort after each album is emptied so that you don’t get too far ahead of yourself. By doing it this way, you can keep control of the large project at hand. We’d like to add, that you can also make piles of photos to give to extended family members and friends. Sometimes, as time passes, it’s easy to let go of those photos.
• Now you have a decision to make. Will your next step be to sort the photos chronologically or by theme? If chronologically, just keep the photos in order and store them in a photo safe box until you are ready to tackle the next album. If by theme, when going through the remaining photos, try to determine in what category the photo belongs. For example: Vacations, Holidays, School Years, Sports, Birthdays, etc… If you have multiple siblings, you may also sort by sibling and then into each of those categories.

• Once you’ve emptied all of the albums, go around the house and collect any lingering photos that might be in drawers, boxes, etc… Go through the same process of sorting and discarding with these pictures as well.

We hope the information above has helped you to devise a process for downsizing your parents' photos. The most important thing is not to feel guilty about throwing away the bad pictures. In our parents' day, they kept every picture they developed. They did not have the luxury of deleting an image right from their cameras.

Good luck! If downsizing your parents photos is something you have a desire to do but not the time, please consider hiring a professional photo organizer  to tackle the project for you.

Downsizing Your Digital Photos

You’ve got your photos off your camera and organized in folders or in your software. Now you’re working on an album, a display, or some photo project. Now is the time to be in the editing stage, when you’re choosing which you’ll include in that project. There’s no sense editing photos you’re not going to use, right? While you’re correcting red eye, cropping, cloning and such, you may as well edit down, or downsize, the number of photos you have.

Downsizing will do two things. Reducing the number of images you have will save space on your hard drive. Deleting from your library will also save time, because you—and all your peeps—will have fewer bad shots to pour through. You can spend your precious time better by enjoying the prize shots, yes? So let’s get to it.

We’ve always found it easier to downsize in retrospect, a while after the event. Or maybe you like to do it as soon as you take the picture and review it. The earlier the better.

Blurry shots: Blurry photos never get less blurry. These aren’t fun for anyone to look at—why make someone dizzy?

Duplicates: How many photos of a battleship do I need? We try to pick out the best one to tell the story, preferably with someone in the shot to give perspective and interest. All other duplicates…delete! 

Bad shots. While you’re looking for the best photos of your event, it’s easy to pick out the ones you don’t want—those with facial expressions askew, eyes closed, heads turned, etc. You’ll want to delete those. It’s like the rule for clutter: look at and put it where it belongs, handling only once. In this case, it belongs in the trash. Exception: The bad shot may have the one good expression of a subject, and you may want to clone that face from the bad shot to the better one. In that case, keep the photo but delete other less-than-stellar shots.

Meaningless shots. In hindsight, you may wonder why you took the picture of that tiny stream. Or the butterfly whose wings you can’t see. Scenic shots are fine, but many lose meaning after the picture was taken. Again, if the photo doesn’t help tell the story of the event, delete.

Protecting and Preserving Your Precious Memories

Preserving our memories properly is a major part of organizing many homes. All of us have items that have sentimental value to all of us but may not mean anything to anyone else. Photographs and paper mementos can be both a treasure and a burden for us. I’m all in favor of preserving these precious family treasures, but it is unfortunate when they get damaged because they were thrown too quickly into a cardboard box or shoved onto a free space on a shelf in the basement. If you’re going to save these items, it’s important to treat them as the treasures they are, or they will appear to have the same value as all of the other items you threw into a box to clear your kitchen counter or dining room table before company comes over!

There are several factors that can contribute to the deterioration of photos and mementos. Humidity, temperature, and sunlight are all environmental factors that can cause damage. In addition, rapid temperature changes, such as humidity followed by cold weather can cause cracking and ruin the image in photos. This is especially true in basements and attics where temperatures can fluctuate. Other things that damage photos are dirt, dust, and oil. Your photos can stick together, curl, or get moldy in damp environments. Insects and rodents can also tear away at paperwork. That all said, attics and basements are not the best locations for storing precious documents.

Your keepsakes should be stored in a place with consistent temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees and a humidity level of no more than 50%. Not all homes can maintain such consistent climate control, especially those without air conditioning. If this is the case, safety deposit boxes can be a safe solution for valuable papers and photos if another option is needed.  When storing your photos, it is best not to keep the negatives with the photos. Just in case something happens, you will have the opportunity to re-print the photos if they are stored in two different locations. Ideally, your photos should be scanned as well and backed up on your computer as well as cloud storage and CDs.

When making decisions to display valuable papers or photos in your home, think about making a copy and keeping the original in storage. Sunlight will slowly fade the photograph. In addition, glass will sometimes stick to the photo in the picture frame. To be safe, make a high-quality photocopy to ensure the preservation of the original.

It’s also important to never write on the backs of photos with ball point pens or use anything acidic. Acids can break down the photos over time and destroy the image. If a document or photo needs special protection, consider wrapping it in acid free tissue or paper to protect it from environmental elements. You should avoid using plastic bags, storage containers, or non-acid-free photo boxes. It may be tempting to use these means of storage because they are inexpensive and available everywhere, but they will not protect your papers and photos in the long run. Use only lignin-free, acid-free, buffered paper for photos and papers. These products can also be used in-between pages in photo albums. Use only PVC free plastics such as polyester, mylar, polypropylene, polyethelyne, and Tyvek.

These are just a few suggestions about how to preserve your precious memories. You made the decision to keep the papers and photos, so be sure to store and preserve them in a way that you and future generations will be able to enjoy them for years to come!

Are your memories going to last?

In this digital age, it’s easy to capture and store countless images on our computers, phones, tablets etc.   However, a growing collection of digital photos, scattered throughout our multiple devices, may seem overwhelming to organize.  What’s a memory keeper to do…? Make a plan! 


Wait…  why should I organize?, you might ask. After all, it’s time consuming and a lot of work. We take pictures to document our lives and to tell our stories. It’s a struggle to share those stories if they can’t be easily and quickly accessed and we want them to live forever.

 

 

“People are used to the idea of having old family pictures from 50 or 100 years ago or more. There will be VERY FEW surviving family pictures from this decade or 1990′s in the year 2100. Many more pictures will survive from 1920 than from 1980.” ~Christopher G. Mullin, Special Collections, Mansfield Library, The University of Montana

Wouldn’t it feel great knowing that our photos (our memories and stories) are safe and accessible?  Not only for ourselves, but for future generations?  Don't let your children grow up to be jpegs!!