Preserve and store photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so says the old adage. But it’s true, isn’t it? Getting lost in old photos rejuvenates cherished memories. Technology allows us to store, preserve and organize photos for our own use and for use by others now and in the future.

Organize, preserve and store photos digitally.

Storing Photos

Photography has changed dramatically in the recent past. With smartphone cameras, people are taking photos all the time! Storing those photos, however, requires digital space. If you have a smartphone, there’s a good chance you’ve received a storage notice. Space on your smartphone isn’t limitless, but fortunately there are many options when it comes to digital storage. Here are a few options to consider:

  1. Apple iCloud
  2. Google Photos
  3. Flickr
  4. Photobucket

Each of the four options allows you to store your photos online and easily access them at any time!

If you’d prefer to store your photos on an external device, that’s also an option! There are many types of external storage devices, from CDs and DVDs to external hard drives and flash drives. All external devices have limited capacity for storing photos, but depending on how you want to organize your photos, that could be put to good use. You could do a CD of photos for each month or year. Or you could store tons of photos and organize into folders on a flash drive or external hard drive.

Preserving Photos

While we now have the ability to take photos anywhere and everywhere we go, it’s also important to preserve existing photos. One way to ensure that photos last for years to come is to digitize them by scanning them for digital storage. It takes some time to get photos scanned, uploaded and organized, but it’s well worth it. Try one of the tools below to digitize your photos for digital storage:

  1. Photoscan
  2. ScanMyPhotos.com

Organizing Photos

Once you have your photos in the digital space, the next step is to organize them. It’s not uncommon to have multiple photos of the same event or same people…especially when those photos were taken digitally. Digital photos aren’t limited by film capacities, after all! That said, make it a point to regularly go through your photos and delete the ones you don’t want. Although storing them digitally doesn’t take up actual space, virtual space can also be “messy.”

One of the best ways to organize your photos is in folders on your computer, external hard drive or cloud storage space. For instance, you could have a folder for each year with subfolders for each month or for specific events. It certainly makes finding the image you’re looking for simpler if you take the steps to organize as you go!

Now, get to snapping those photos! Organize, preserve and store your memories, and be sure to look back often with friends and family.