archive family photos

We got a scanner at my grandmother’s house, so I don’t have to cart pictures back and forth now! I’m currently scanning everything I can get my hands on while I’m here for the holidays—everything from old wedding photos to the brand new pictures of my cousin’s daughter, Aubrey.

Okay, so we’re back to square one with the scanning. The first time around, I didn’t scan at the absolute highest resolution, which was just silly of me, really. So I’m starting over.

Also, I bought this really nice album today, so I have a place to put them once they’re scanned instead of back in the moving box.

The size of this project is staggering.

One of the biggest rewards from this project was buying my aunt and my grandmother a TV picture viewer for Christmas. We put about 300 photos on an SD card and it shuffles through them while music plays – my dad and I picked Nat King Cole.

It made my grandmother cry. She said it was the best Christmas present she’d ever received. (Which made me cry.)

Last night, I sat down with my grandmother and my aunt at the computer and went through all the photos we had on Flickr and identified everyone, tagged the photos, and even added some titles and other details.

I also found more pictures that need to be scanned. (As if I needed them.)

Future goals:
-Finish scanning everything at high resolution and uploading to Flickr
-Finish editing all photos in Picnik
-Put loose prints in an archival-quality album
-Make prints of the best pictures and get them framed
-Learn how to restore photographs with Photoshop and start fixing cracks, dirt, tears, water damage, etc.

I did a search for online photo editing, and came up with Picnik, which is recommended by Photojojo, among others.

What’s great about Picnik?

1. Free!
2. Links to your Flickr account.
3. One-click auto adjustment.
4. One-click save to Fickr.

Perfect for getting rid of that ugly 1970s yellow cast. Some days, there are just not enough words for how cool the Internet is.

I just found a picture from 1901!

My great grandmother, Nonnie, at age six.

I set up the scanner and have started saving pics to the home network drive.

As you can see, I’ve got my work cut out for me!

You can see my progress on the family Flickr account:

thefamilyarchive

We have four generations of pictures, and I really want to preserve them the right way.

There’s an article on Real Simple, and I plan to do this soon. I want them to last so I can pass them down to future generations.