Organizing & Digitizing Your Family Memories

Photo Projects – Protect Your Family Memories Before It’s Too Late

Most of us have had family photos passed down through the years, and stacks off photo albums and photos of us and our families just laying around in boxes and draws. If you’re stuck at home like many of us, this is the perfect time to finally go through your photo and video libraries. Use this time at home to tackle those stacks of photos, albums and home movies and make sure they are protected so your family memories are preserved for generation to come.

You have plenty of time on your hands!

They say a picture says a thousand words.  With the country basically on lock-down until the end of April, it’s perfect time to let them talk and relive all fun family memories while organizing them in preparation to digitally preserve your family memories for future generations!  Use this downtime, to finally archive those stacks of photos, albums and home movies. If you’d like personal assistance or have questions, please call 215.887.1248 or email our team at sales@larmon.com. We’re happy to assist you remotely.

Larmon Photo offers several services that you can prepare to take advantage of, including Shoebox Scanning, Archival Scanning, Photo Restorations, and, Movie/Video Transfers to Digital Format and DVD.  Don’t wait until it’s too late to protect those photos of your grandparents, high school/college and your family vacations. When you’re ready to move to the digitizing phase of your project, email sales@larmon.com to schedule a curbside drop-off and/or pick-up. If you prefer to wait until the “Stay At Home Ban” is lifted you can just drop them by the store at your convenience.

Here are a few reasons why you should start that archiving project you have been putting off for years:

• Aging photo albums, boxes of prints and home movies are at high risk for deterioration, misplacement and destruction in their current state. Archiving is also preventing for loss due to water damage, fire and other environmental hazards.

• Once your photos are digitized you will never have to sift through closets and flip through albums looking for a single photo. Digitally archived images are easily searchable.

• Many of our customers choose to order multiple copies of their digitized images for each of their children, grandchildren or siblings. Ensuring each family member can have their very own digital copy of the files. Additionally, many of our customers want printed copies, we can do that as well.

• Storing a DVD or USB Drive with digital versions of your memories takes far less space in your home. 

Safe Storage Techniques

Store Your Family Memories on the Main Level of Your Home

NEVER keep your family memories in your basements and/or attics. These locations tend to experience temperature extremes. Not to mention that humidity, moisture which can do major damage to photos and home movies. Additionally, basements are susceptible to flooding.

Use Waterproof Storage

NEVER store your family memories in a cardboard box! Cardboard absorbs moisture and will damage your photos/movies. Instead use waterproof storage bins. They are nice, deep and sturdy. That way if you do experience any water damage your memories would be somewhat protected.

Remove Prints from Old Albums

ALWAYS remove photos from any magnetic sticky albums from the 70’s and 80’s. That adhesive material can significantly damage your photos. If you intend on eventually digitizing your prints – you will have to remove them anyway, so why not start now?

Reduce Clutter and Photo Volume

Keep in mind when we say preserve your family memories when sorting your photos with the intention of reducing the quantity of images you really need to keep. This mean you want to eliminate duplicates, similar shots from the same event, blurry/low quality and poor subject matter. For example – do you really need 47 photos from your child’s 7th birthday party? 15-20 are probably more than suffice.

Preparing your Photos for Shoebox Scanning

Shoebox scanning is an automated process. The scanner can only accommodate photos between wallet-sized (2 ½” x 3 ½”) and 8” x 12”. Sizes smaller than 2 ½” x 3 ½” are too small to scan and will require a manual scan at an additional fee of $3.00 per scan.  Mounted prints and thicker Polaroid SX70 prints are also to thick for the automated scanner.  Those will also need to be manually scanned at an additional fee ranging from $3.00 to $15.00 depending on size of the original image (SX70 scans are $3.00 each).   For optimal results please organize your photos according to size and image orientation.

Digitize Prints for Long Term Protection

At Larmon Photo, we have the equipment, training and professional experience to manage this portion of your project for. We’ll carefully digitize, color correct and save your printed memories as digital files. Finally, we will store them on a CD/DVD or a USB Drive. Once your memories are in a digital format – you’ll have countless ways to share them with family members and make digital slide shows, photo albums and fun photo creations with them.

LARMON TIP: Before bringing your photos and videos to us, it’s best to predetermine which family members would like a copy of your digital files – not only today, but also in the future. It’s easiest and most affordable to order multiple copies of your files at the time of digitizing. Think about your children, your siblings, your parents, etc.