How Can I Retain My Photographic Memories?

Many of our memories are best preserved in our collection of pictures. Of course, it used to be very important to preserve not only the picture but also the negative so that other prints could be made. Most youth today don’t even know what a negative is! So what is the best way to preserve those digital memories?

First, don’t be shy about taking plenty of pictures. With the ability to take large numbers of pictures at no cost today, you can get several shots of every scene, just to be sure. I purchased a large memory card for my digital camera in preparation for a special trip last summer. When I got home, I still had room to take more than 10,000 shots!

After collecting your numerous pictures, delete the ones that are not clear, exposure is wrong, people are frowning or in the shadows, or duplicates. You don’t have to keep every one. However, you may want to keep some that contain special people, poses, or memories, even if they aren’t the best. After all, it doesn’t cost anything to keep it except memory.

Computer programs allow you to set up electronic photo albums and catalog the pictures in whatever way you want. Be sure to identify each picture as to place, time, event. I have many colored slides taken by my parents in Europe but I don’t how of what they are taken. If they had labeled them clearly, they would be much more useful.

At this point you may feel you are done with your project. Yet, consider how fragile your preserved memories are. One crash of your hard drive and you may lose everything! If they are on floppy disks, you might not even have the media to read them any more! Floppies are also vulnerable to magnetic fields.

Formerly we thought CDs were more secure. Since nothing needed to touch the surface, nothing wore out. But now we see that scratches or breaks are much too easy and again the memories can be lost.

Start with this suggestion: store all your pictures additionally in another place and on copies in other parts of your home. That is, if you put them on a CD, make copies and store at least one copy in another home, at work, in a safety deposit box. Be sure to back up your hard drives and, if possible, subscribe to a service that backs up your data on a server somewhere else. As media changes, backup your memories on the new media. If all your pictures were on 5 ¼ floppy disks, you might not ever be able to see them!

Today we have the ability to take massive numbers of pictures and to share them around the world without once printing them. Just don’t forget that, with the cut in photography development cost, be sure to invest something so that you keep those precious memories for the next generation.

Hopefully these tips will help you. But if you’re more interested in a professional handling your photography, consider the services of Del Haven Studio, an accomplished Virginia Beach Portrait Photographer. View their website portfolio for samples of their quality.