LIGHTENING YOUR CLOUD?

oops forgot to recharge battery

A full room at the library program had quite a treat listening to Ed Hill, past UW-L library's archivist, speak about his passion of preservation of our past through photographs.

Besides a really interesting photo history lesson about portrait photography was also the information of how to care and extend the life of our photos. 

I've always enjoyed taking photos but I certainly could have used some of these tips earlier in my life. It's never too late and gee with retirement this definitely could be added to the list of things to do. Perhaps you can use some of these tips too and won't wait until retirement. 

Storage: keep your photos in a dark, dry place. 
Previously dyes were used in making photo prints, now tints are used which fortunately last longer. Photos will fade. Humidity will ruin/soil prints with mildew/get stuck together.

We wouldn't have know this was "Billy the Kid" wo labeling

Label: Who, Where, When?

Nobody is going to know the importance of the photo unless info is written on back/in file.


Trash: Every 3 years go through photos and get rid of poor quality photos in addition to landscape photos without meaning. Save what is important.

Print: Take meaningful photos off of photo cards, sticks, memory and print them. Noone is going to sit down with a card and look through hundreds of photos for "Uncle Bob."

Album/Book: Put those printed photos into an album/ make the selected photos into a book. Don't ever use tape on photos, it will yellow/become brittle/ leave adhesives on print.

Today most albums are archival and have acid free paper. 
Move old photos into these type of albums. By all means do not use magnetic page type albums, prints will not only yellow but adhere permanently to these pages.

Backup Photos: Use an external drive to copy photos periodically in case something happens to original computer files/ prints. Scan favorite photos. 

Cloud storage: has drawbacks, now that storage may be free but eventually there will be a charge.  We take too many pictures, selfies, etc. weed out duplicates and print meaningful pics.

Migrate: Keep up with the times of using different storage techniques
-Slides: Transfer slides to CD discs. Remember Discs also have   limited shelf life and will delaminate, so copy onto newer products as their become available
-Videos: Tape begins to disintegrate. Transfer to CDs.
- Newpaper Clippings: paper is acidic, scan / photograph 

I am sure there is something I forgot but this sure gives me plenty to do and I bet I am not alone in this endeavor. A lot of purging pics to do here in the End of the Rainbow Valley, how about you?