What are you leaving behind? Protecting Memories in a digital world

What are you leaving behind? Protecting Memories in a digital world.

Memories are priceless.  I love coming across old family photographs. It’s so exciting to see the past, how things have changed, and to imagine those moments unfolding.  There’s just something about holding a picture. It takes on a new life in the hand. There are so many moments that I have in old shoe boxes, just waiting to be held and looked at. A story within an image.

We live in a time where thousands of snapshots are taken every day, consumed in glance on the screen of our smartphone and then, forgotten forever because they were never printed.
If a person dies and we haven’t been printing out our photos, we leave behind a box of hard disks and an online account of images stored in the cloud. If my closets are being cleaned out and my kids/grandkids find a box of hard drives, What’s the most likely outcome? The garbage or another closet, attic or basement. Hard drives hold no emotional weight. There’s a good chance, in that situation, nobody will ever see, enjoy or discuss my pictures ever again. I want better than that for my kids & grandkids.

Below is a few photos taken from my parents wedding. They did not have a fancy wedding but it was full of love for one another surrounded by the ones they loved most. I am thankful for these pictures. I love looking at them, I love sharing them with my kids.

If I handed you this floppy disk and told you to go look at my wedding photos, would you be able to? We used these floppies just 10 yrs ago or so.

My parents wedding photos have stayed with us for over fifty years now.  Are we sure that after the same time, our personal computers will still be able to read a DVD or still have USB ports ? Will there be a black hole in our world of photographs because of this digital era?

Pottery Barn had a great book about how to display your photos in your home.  It was called “Photos: Style Recipes”.  It’s a great resource for displaying your photos.

I challenge you to PRINT your photos. Let generations to come enjoy them too.

http://www.today.com/money/why-your-digital-photos-might-die-your-grandkids-see-them-1D80395921