June 27, 2012

Wedding Wednesday: Preserve Those Memories


Today marks the anniversary of one of the most exciting, nerve-wracking, and happiest days of my life: my wedding.

Every once in awhile, I pull out the album of 8”x10” wedding photos that my parents purchased from the photographer. This year, I decided to take the time to archive the photos. Like a lot of family historians, I tend to get caught up with documenting and preserving the distant past, while letting the recent past slip by. Yet why should archiving the events of our own lives be any less important than the lives of our ancestors?

Here’s what I’m doing to preserve the photos:
  • Remove the photos from the album and scan them to iPhoto on my computer. The album, thankfully, isn’t one of those magnetic ones that were so common in the 80’s, but it does have some sort of adhesive at the edge of each sleeve that is starting to erode and leech onto the pictures.
  • Write an identifying caption on the back of each picture using an archival-safe ink pen.
  • Replace the photos in the album (to preserve the order) until I can buy a new, archival quality 8x10 album to put them in.
  • Put all the digital scans together as an digital album in iPhoto, cleaning each one up as necessary.
  • Enter metadata to identify the people, place, and date for each photo.
  • Burn two DVDs of the digital album, label them, and put them in different places.
  • Back up my computer to an external hard drive and Mozy.

Yes, it takes some time, but it’s nothing compared to the time that went into planning the wedding. And aren’t those memories worth it?

16 comments:

  1. Happy anniversary!

    One idea, before you pull each photo out to scan it. Scan the page as is. Then scan individually. This way, you know the order of the book and then you do not have to put them back into it.

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    1. Good idea, Terri. I'll have to remember that before I start taking apart my old magnetic albums (ugh!).

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  2. Happy Anniversary!!

    Yep, I need to scan my wedding album too. Thanks for the reminder and great tips!

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  3. I've scanned all my family photo albums, and my Mum's albums but after reading this I realized I never did my wedding album! Thanks for the reminder!

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  4. It IS a great reminder - 3,000 digital photos of 2011 weddings and only two of mine are done!

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    1. LOL Malissa, I know just what you mean. The same can be said of my kids' graduations and so many other events, too.

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  5. I'm so busy scanning my 100+ year old stuff I didn't even think about my own memories. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. Glad it helped, Debi. You're lucky to have a lot of stuff that old!

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  6. I love it! Such a beautiful photo. I really need to do the same to all of my photos. I'd hate to admit that some are in boxes and not even albums....

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    Replies
    1. No worries, Stephanie. Start with something small and just do it. You'll feel good and be motivated to tackle another small bit. At least that's what I keep telling myself :)

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