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Post by downandout on Mar 16, 2010 15:39:14 GMT -5
hello everyone! one of my problem areas is photos. boxes and boxes of them. LOTS of them. like 30 boxes i am not kidding.some are from my family some from my hubbys. many are of people we dont know who they are - friends family we just dont know - and anyone who would know are long dead. and yet to get rid of them feels like we are throwing the poeple away weird i know. what would you do how do you deal with this?
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Post by Chris on Mar 16, 2010 18:05:12 GMT -5
I can surely relate. I have albums and albums of photos. When I was young I filled a whole big album every year with photos. Even if they were near duplicate, I put them all in there. The binders are heavy, the photos need to gone thru so we can keep the best ones. I also have several tubs full. I keep trying to get started in sorting and throwing out some. I did manage to throw out wrongly exposed and out of focus ones. Other than that I am real challenged to get started. Now I make scrapbook type pages -- so I don't duplicate and each page is worth keeping. But back in the 80s and 90s I was nuts with the photos. I'll be eager to hear if anyone else has tamed the photo monster. I just don't know where to begin.
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Post by Butterfly on Mar 16, 2010 20:08:02 GMT -5
This is not one of my problems so I don't know how helpful my advice will be. (Please note that I have lots of problems - just not this one. ) But, I would say that if you don't know anyone in the photo then toss it. Maybe if it's a heritage type photo (you know, it looks 50 or more years old), AND you have older family members you could ask about it, then make a stack of those to run by your other family members before you toss it. If it's a photo that's very similar to another photo, toss the one you like the least. If you are nervous, or on the fence, about tossing some photos, scan them to your computer first then toss the original. Keep only the hard copies of photos that you love or that have historical value to your family.
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Post by 60isolderthanithot on Mar 16, 2010 21:19:18 GMT -5
I've heard of this situation before. A lot of folks simply scan/digitize the photos they won't throw out. Scanners are cheap and so are the DVD writers and media. You can save anything that scares you to throw away and review that decision for years to come.
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Post by success19 on Mar 16, 2010 22:41:20 GMT -5
I actually have gotten rid of bad ones and duplicates - I mean do I need 20?
My dd thinks that is crazy.
I don't.
If you have a scanner - digitize (I don't).
I plan to get a digital camera before I go overseas for sure.
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Post by disarray on Mar 16, 2010 22:43:37 GMT -5
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Post by CrimsonKat on Mar 17, 2010 0:20:53 GMT -5
i have an ongoing photo project. i scan them, and back them up. i keep the really important ones (old ones, super cute ones, etc.) and plan to do albums someday. i actually took photos OUT of old albums so i can get rid of excess photos. otherwise i recycle the basic ones, duplicate ones, etc. once i am totally done, it will feel great. i've been digital for quite a few years now, so i have very few new paper photos. i can always have them made or print them myself as needed. i vote scan them all and only keep hard copies of really special ones. it saves tons of space. good luck!
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Post by eatingbonbons on Mar 17, 2010 0:33:45 GMT -5
I have a small walk-in closet filled with photos, so we're living on the same planet, Down&Out. I am a photographer (hobbyist, though I don't care for that word) and I've been taking pictures for 46 years. Are any of your boxes sorted? Are they photo-sized boxes or regular (moving) size boxes? I would recommend doing an initial sort tossing out duplicates, bad shots, unlikely subjects, etc as you go. Decide on categories - whatever works for you - date (by decade, maybe, or where you lived), person/s (husband's family, each of your children, etc), event (school years, trips, holidays, baby's 1st year, etc). Just whatever categories work for you. Just by doing this I'm sure you can reduce 30 boxes in half, & maybe more. Once you label the boxes you'll be able to find whatever photos you may need. If you want to sort further, you can do that at a later date.
Almost all of my photos are in photo boxes. They're all in chronological order and labeled with name & event. If I never do anything else with them (scrapbooks, etc) they're easily accessible and ready for the children to deal with them if that time comes suddenly.
My newer digital images are divided into folders much like my print photos. Those images are on 3 different hard drives. For me personally, scanning and saving my film prints onto a digital drive is simply not a viable option.
At some point in the next couple of year I will do another sort. In many cases, the more time goes by the less important the pictures become. But in many, many more cases, the passing time makes the photos even more precious. When you're sorting be ruthless, but don't throw away your heart.
What we're doing here is called editing; it's part of the photography experience. Tossing away the irrelevant photos allows the spotlight to be on the significant images, right where it belongs.
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Post by lizzie on Mar 17, 2010 3:40:25 GMT -5
There may be a local historical society that would be interested in the older photos. Or an art group that might make something out of them... or for the more recent, 'who are these people??' pictures, a primary school art class which would enjoy cutting up the pictures... just think, in a few years this particular problem will no longer exist, as everyone switches to digital!
I have a similar quantity of photos myself, by the way...
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Post by downandout on Mar 17, 2010 12:11:50 GMT -5
thank you for your wonderful and kind replies! somehow i never expected anyone else to have this problem . i had bought a scanner/printer thing years ago but it sat for so long unused that the ink dried up inside and clogged it. now i don't tihnk i could find it everything is in a jumble because of the move. oh well. but i think your ideas of getting rid of the photos that are out of focus or scenery that is repetitive is something i can do. i am going to get one small box go thru it and see how it goes! thanks again to you all!
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Post by shopgirl on Mar 17, 2010 13:04:54 GMT -5
Toss the prints, keep the negatives. Prints get degraded over time. Negs are still good.
There are entire flickr groups dedicated to "found" photographs. These people are really excited when they find someone's old discarded photos. Google Charles Phoenix, who has published many books of photos he found.
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Post by eaglesflight on Mar 18, 2010 15:52:32 GMT -5
There are also a lot of found photos on www.foundmagazine.com/. Some of them are really fascinating. It's fun to imagine who the people are and how the photo came to be lost. (Of course, there are a lot of funny comments that just try to come up with a silly explanation. Those are just as fun.)
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Post by juniper2 on Mar 18, 2010 16:36:12 GMT -5
When I was younger I went thru ALL the photos of my mother and mine and plucked everyone's brain silly on what year, month, date or event and who the people were...I created a VERY large photo album with captions below. I kept the very good photos, tossed the old crappy ones (with approval of course) and created such a great coffee table album.... I was so proud. The album was dated from the 1930's to 2000. Then I moved in 2000. The album was inside a box with all my expensive work clothes/dresses/suits and it fell off my truck when I was moving. My girlfriend didn't even bother to stop me and let me know that several boxes fell off the truck when she was following me in her car and saw all the stuff fall off! I went back but everything was gone. I lost about $5,000 worth of clothing and my beautiful memories to boot. No pictures of me as a baby, none of my mother, great grandparents or any family members who are now dead and gone. The really funny thing is that I have a learning disability...I can't see pictures in my mind like other people...so I don't even remember what ANYONE looks like past or present! So, I live with pictures in envelopes now. I still have the leather album with special acidic-free antique paper that I was going to transfer the album to in my new place! Maybe someday i will get over the loss and time I spent on all that work I did and re-create a new life of pictures in a new album...but then I have no children, only a sister left, no family to speak of so it really doesn't matter anymore since I'm 60. If you have family and children it really is great to have an album all organized with dates/events/persons labeled. My old album created a lot of enjoyment for the people and strangers who had seen it! So it really would be worth the time spent! Just edit the pictures that you cannot do captions for and weed out duplicates. I wouldn't keep more than one picture of a person/event unless it was a really really good one or a really great group shot. Fantastic scenery pics of vacations, etc. break up the monotony of just people! Good luck!
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Post by eatingbonbons on Mar 18, 2010 20:41:40 GMT -5
Juniper2, I'm so, so sorry you lost your carefully made photo album. I hope you'll find another way to keep your memories dear.
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Post by downandout on Mar 19, 2010 8:07:52 GMT -5
i am sorry to hear that too juniper i cant imagine your friend not saying anything to you. not much of a friend id think. as for my family, there is hubby and myself but no kids not going to have any. other family well thats a long story but most of them are gone - both his parents and mine - grandparents all gone hubbys brothers have passed too and i have only one brother left the latest death was my younger sister of suicide. all the deaths have added to the squalor in more ways then one not only depression but also getting some of their stuff. photos included. i was lucky that i got thru that box and reduced it by half. i also m anaged to go thru a couple others and so that is good. i doubt really doubt that i would be able to make any kind of nice album or anything not that i wouldnt want to but i just have started to realise that i probably wont you know? thank you again everyone there are some awesome ideas in this thread!
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