Fifteen years ago my Mom pulled out a big box of photos and super8 films that she had saved.   There were photos spanning the lives of my parents and grandparents and super8 films that documented the first 9 years of my families life.  My Mom and sat down and went through all of those old photos and she shared her family history, memories of her childhood, meeting my Dad and raising my Brother and Sister and I. It was a precious time capsule and a precious gift to be able to spend that time with my Mom to not only hear her stories but to see and feel her life through her eyes. I knew how important these memories where and I wanted to protect them. I know that Super8 films will eventually degrade and would be lost forever so I wanted to archive them as soon as possible as well as scanning every photo in that box to make sure they were archived and protected. Scanning such a large quantity of photos was going to take some time and I didn’t want to rush the process so I allowed one hour per day.  It took a few weeks but eventually all of the images were archived.  For the Super8 films and video, I found a reputable local lab and brought the film canisters and video cassettes in to be digitized and put on a DVD. (This was 15 years ago and DVD’s were cutting edge).  A few months later, my entire family history had been digitized and preserved and I had DVD’s made for each family member. When my parents had their 50th wedding anniversary I created a book for them to celebrate the first 50 years of their life. I was able to recall all of my Mom and Dads stories, their journey from their first words to each other to their lives as grandparents.   It was a labor of love made easier because I already had every family photo archived and ready to use. 

 I want to share a personal experience and why my decision to digitally archive all of my families memories was so important.  On January 3rd, 2020 my Mom passed away after a two year bout with Cancer.  For anyone who’s lost a parent or a spouse I don’t have to explain the gravity of that loss.  We all pitched in with the funeral arrangements and because I am a photographer/videographer, it fell on me to take care of all of the media, large prints of my Mom and a short film that chronicled her life to be shown at the service.  I had a week to complete everything; photo prep, retouching and printing in addition to creating and editing the short film. It was a gut wrenching emotional week and one of the hardest projects I’ve ever had to do but it was also cathartic to be able to spend that time honoring my beautiful Mom. The project would not have been possible if I didn’t have the forethought to digitize my family history. It would not have been possible if I didn’t have the amazing gift of sharing stories and family history with my Mom and Dad. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my Mom, but I have an entire archive of precious memories at my fingertips and a film to watch when I need to feel and remember her. 

One day, you may want to create a beautiful photo album for your family.  And one day, those family members may no longer be with us but your memories, in photos and film, can last forever.  It’s worth the time! So here are some tips to get you started in archiving your own family memories.

Scanning photos into digital files:

• Handle the images with care.  If you have lint-free cloth gloves use them. If not, hold the images on the edges.  
• Make sure the glass on your scanner is clean and dust free each time you start scanning for the day.
• Use a lint free fiber cloth to gently remove the dust from your photos before you place them on the scanner. 
• Make sure you scan at the highest resolution (300dpi) which is a print quality file.  One day you may want to reprint that image our use it in a digitally printed family photo album.
• If you don’t have a scanner or the time or energy to put into scanning a large quantity of photos then there are local business who specialize in exactly that.

Naming and organize your files:

Decide on how you’d like to organize and name the photos. One suggestion is to break them down and name them using the year, family members and event or location. Use either an “underscore” or “hyphen” to break up the words. Naming them this way will give you 3 or 4 key words to use when you search for a specific photo and make your life SO much easier.

1960_Kids_pool

1965_mom_dad_wedding

1984_mikes_first_car

• You can also separate your images into “albums” in iPhoto.  
• If you don’t have iPhoto or a comparable windows photo program  you can create folders directly in your files to organize them.  
• If you’re using iPhoto, Adobe Bridge or Lightroom to organize and view your photos, use “keywords’ like – Mom, Dad, Kids, Vacation, Mexico, Wedding etc. when you upload your photos. This allows you to narrow your search and easily find images that you want to use in your projects. 

Transferring your super8 movies or Video to digital files:

Unless you are an expert this is best left to the professionals.

A simple Google search: “transferring super8 to digital” will give you local businesses in your area that provide this service.  Even if it’s slightly more expensive, I HIGHLY recommend that you do this locally and in person rather than shipping or mailing your precious original films to an online lab and risking them becoming lost or damaged in the process.  

DVD players are almost as irrelevant as VCR’s so consider which format is best for you to be able to view and enjoy your movies. I recommend that you get your memories transferred first as simple digital MP4 files so you can store, view and if you are computer savvy, edit them on your computer.  After that, If you and your family still have DVD players then you can get additional copies of playable DVD’s that you can show on your home TV.  

Back up EVERYTHING.  Hard drives fail eventually and when they do, so do all of your photos and hard work in archiving them.  Back them up on at least two hard drives. If you have the time and resources, give an additional hard drive to another family member so it’s in a different location in case of fire.  

I can tell you this from experience: This may seem like a daunting task but if you break it up over a few weeks or a month, you won’t feel that overwhelm and you will NEVER regret spending the time to protect those memories.