I’ve been trying to overcome my habitual procrastination by starting the task of scanning old snapshots that have been stored in old photo albums and stuck in boxes here and there. The photos are deteriorating at different speeds, as are the plastic pages that hold the photos in three-ring binders. My goal is to scan and upload them to Google Photos and Amazon photos, perhaps with a set to iCloud as well. And then I’ll bid farewell to the printed copies and also throw away the albums.
I’m using an older Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner. It produces reasonable scans, but doesn’t have the most intuitive softward. After a few hours at the task yesterday afternoon, I had made it through one album and started a second. There are, I think, four more in this first box. After that, there could be perhaps four storage boxes with additional albums. It’s going to be a long haul.
Here’s a photo I believe was taken at an anti-nuclear weapons demonstration in Vancouver, B.C. aimed at the Trident submarine system based nearby. The photo was probably taken about 40 years ago. The message resonates in the current political environment as well, doesn’t it?
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Indeed the sign is perfect. We are fools to be silent about the destruction of our Constitution, Nation, Planet regardless of which party or nation. They all play a role of greed.
Great idea
I enjoy your columns
Excellent message for today, Ian. Mahalo!
Excellent message for today, Ian. Mahalo!
reminds one. And this time feels even bigger.
“As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.” –Proverbs 26:11
I’ll say it does! Resonates with so many aspects of the drama we’re facing and/or watching! Both Nationally and Internationally!
Hi Ian, I had a similar large project with my family photos and 35mm slides. I found the scanner method just too slow and too many steps. I switched to using my phone camera and a phone scanner app (like photomyne or slide scan) and it wasn’t perfect by a long shot but the speed was amazing and the quality acceptable. Of course, now I have electronic files of zillions of photos. I debate which is better! Aloha, Chuck
Once I get past the first hurdle of freeing the photos from the deteriorating and/or sticky plastic pages, I can feed stacks into the scanner. I’ve finally figured out how to put a label on related slides and save them to a folder, which I can then upload to Google or iCloud. I have some catch-up to get the first day’s scans into proper shape to upload a copy to Amazon as well. If I were trying to do this with a flatbed scanner, it would be impossible. I finished a second album today in a couple of hours. It gets faster as I get used to the process, except for ripping the photos out of those plastic pages. I didn’t think back then about how hard the job would be in 40 years.
I have exactly the same issue. 60 years of family photo albums nicely held in those sticky plastic pages! I like shat you say about scanning a stack into the scanner. That would help me.
These pages weren’t originally the sticky kind. They were just clear and you slide photos into individual pockets on the page.
But over time, humidity, etc., things change. Removing each photo becomes a separate chore. Harder than the scanning.
And then comes the organizing!
Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. Proverbs 17:28, NIV