How Can I Preserve My Photographic Memories?

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Many of our fondest memories are stored in thePhoto albums can be set up with computer programs
photos we took and preserved. Of course, it used tocataloging them by event, date, subject, or any way
be very important to preserve not only the picture butyou want. Be sure to identify each picture as to place,
also the negative so that other prints could be made.time, event. I have many colored slides taken by my
Most youth today don’t even know what aparents in Europe but I don’t how of what they
negative is! So what is the best way to preserveare taken. Clear labels can minimize this frustration.
those digital memories?At this point you may feel you are done with your
Many of our memories are best preserved in ourproject. But remember how fragile your memories are.
collection of pictures. Those of us who are olderWithout paper copies, they could be gone in a second!
remember the admonition to keep the negatives soOr if you have them on floppies, you could find it
other pictures could be printed. Now young peopleimpossible to view them! Floppies are also vulnerable
don’t even know what a negative is! So howto magnetic fields.
can I preserve my digital memories?CDs seemed, at first, to be indestructible. Nothing
First, make sure you take plenty of pictures and havetouched the surface so nothing needed to wear out.
family members do the same. With massive memoryBut now we see that scratches or breaks are much
storage capabilities today, we don’t have totoo easy and again the memories can be lost.
worry about the expense of taking an overexposedOne answer to this is storing your photos in several
picture or fumbling with rolls of film. To prepare for aplaces and several locations. If you store them on a
recent trip to visit relatives, I purchased a camera withCD, for example, keep copies at another home, at
a four gig card. When I got home, it still said I couldwork, or in a safety deposit box. Before your hard
take another 10,000 pictures without running out ofdrive is backed up regularly, and, if possible, back it up
memory!also on a network drive in another location. As the
Once you have collected a good number of pictures,media changes, be sure to transfer the pictures to the
don’t be afraid to delete the ones thatnew media, lest it become unavailable. Think what you
aren’t up to standard, or that are duplicates ofwould have if your precious pictures were only on 5
others. Don’t feel you have to keep every¼ floppy disks!
picture. However, you may want to keep some thatToday without printing, we can take huge numbers of
contain special people, poses, or memories, even ifpictures and share them with just about anyone at no
they aren’t the best. It only costs computercost.