Saving those memories in photographs is a tough one when you’re trying to downsize. Like many people that have either a large family or have acquired family memories, what do you do with a ton of photographs when you downsize.
There are services available that will scan your photographs and put them on DVDs. Before giving a service photographs to scan, I would try and locate the negatives and have them digitized. It will most likely be quicker and definitely cost less. I know I have around 10 photo albums and a ton of single polorid photos where the negatives are long gone. The first question that I’m asking myself is do I really want to carry or keep all of these and second, do I have anyone who might want them.
Photo albums not only take up space but are also heavy. I have decided to scan all of them followed by tossing the ones that make no sense to keep. I have downsized my computer equipment and now carry a very lightweight Epson scanner so that I can scan not only my photographs but other documents as I travel.
Each scanned photograph will be saved to an external harddrive where I can then use the photographs for social media or putting in a Digital Frame. If I had family members who wanted a copy, I could then copy them onto a DVD. I will scan the photographs at around 600dpi so that I can blow them up to put in large frames or possibly sell.
One thing that I have recently decided to do was take the photographs out of the albums and place in labeled zipped bags. This will allow for easier storage and a lot less weight until they can be scanned then tossed. Some memories will be hard to get rid of and those photos will be put in storage until the time there is no longer a reason to keep them. Not all memories will be placed into a Digital Frame but the most important ones will be there for me to see probably more often than before.
Sandy Moniz Saving the Memories – Photography, Saving the Memories – Photographs, Sandy Moniz, Sandy Moniz Traveler Author Imagineer
