Don’t let your photos fade away!
Photos fading away
I've been photographing for over 20 years now. In those years, I've taken thousands and thousands of photos. I'm synchronising them to the Google Cloud, rarely looked at again.
Social media platforms reminds you every now and then of a moment from years ago, showing you a photo taken on that same date. They bring back memories you didn’t think about for a long time of a holiday or another nice event.
I'm not using social media (apart from Hive), so I don't get these triggers, but it did make me realize that many special moments are hidden in your photo collection. And that’s a pity, if you ask me.
Coffee table book
In home decor, coffee table books have become a bit of a trend. These books often aren't meant to be read, but are used as decoration.
We have a book filled with beautiful nature photography lying on a cabinet in our living room. It’s a real eye-catcher and often draws attention of people that visit our house. I keep it on a cookbook stand and flip it to a new page every week, so there’s always a different image on display.
It’s a simple thing, but it changes the atmosphere in the room. One week it’s a calm landscape, the next a wild animal in close-up or a striking composition.
I really liked this dynamic and it gave me an idea...
Background wallpapers
I recently found out that in Windows 11 you can use a photo folder on your PC or laptop to create a slideshow on your desktop background. And they can also be shown when your PC or laptop is locked. You can set the interval the photo's change. I've set it to once a day, but you can even set it to 1 minute.
I've been through a my photos in the cloud storage and downloaded a selection of them that I would like to see as a wallpaper. It was really nice to go through these photos and it really brought back some good memories.
Now both my personal as my work laptop are showing my photos on the desktop and lock screens and it's nice to see your own photos every now and then. I've already had a few positive comments on my backgrounds from colleagues too. It's fun to tell them I took all these photos myself.
During the search for wallpapers I came across a lot of other photographs that brought back good memories which, for several different reasons, weren't suitable for a wallpaper. This brought me another idea.
Analog photo frame
I know, I know; an analog photo frame isn't a new idea. Many people have them in their house. But I just have so many photos with memories, I would need hundreds of frames. And yes, I know there also are digital photo frames nowadays, but these are just not my thing.
So what I did is buy a photo frame that can easily be opened. A photo frame of which the back and front are kept together with magnets. This way you can easily change the photo.
Then I printed a couple of personal photos, put one in the list and hung it in our coffee corner in the kitchen. I keep the rest of the photographs in an envelope on the shelf. Every now and then I, or anyone else from my family goes through the photos in the envelope to select a new photo for the frame.
Every time I'm getting some coffee or tea, I'm reminded something nice.
And when we create a new memories, we capture them on film, print them out and add them to the envelope.
The picture below is one from a family holiday of a few years back in de Vosges region in France. We did a via ferrata (rock climbing) with the family. It was a tough climb, especially for our oldest daughter who likes these adventures, but also is afraid of heights. This photo on a very high and long suspension bridge at the end of the trail was a real achievement for her and a memory of a great day and a very lovely holiday.
Do you ever go through your 'old' photos? How do you keep good memories alive?
What do you think of my ideas?
Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
I didnt know about this function in Win11! Thanks for this advice! I just established it :D
we hardly have any photos on the wall , last year i orderd one photo for printing , the rest is on digital archive on the NAS .
As soon as digital photo frames of certain sizes and quality come availeble i might get some of those and let them streem photos from my server .
We also just have this one in the kitchen.
Did you ever consider sharing some of your photo's with the world on Wikimedia Commons?
Nope, never done that.
Hi there. I love your photos—they look great. I have thousands of family photos in a folder on my computer, and I’d love to be able to look at them all the time because they bring back such wonderful memories. I’d love to put them in frames or have them printed to make an album or something like that, but there are just too many. And recently my computer wouldn’t turn on, and I panicked because I might lose all those important photos—at least to me. I like your idea of storing them in the cloud; I’ve never done that before. Is it safe? Do you know of any free places to store them?
Thanks, and best of luck!
Thanks!
If you want to make an album you have to make a selection of the best photos or those that keep the best memories.
I store mine in a Google Photos. If you have a Google account you have 15 GB of free storage. But when you have a lot of hi-resolution photos, you might need to have more than that. They do offer paid subscriptions. It is safe. By default the photos aren't shared publically. I don't know any free services. When a service is free they always use your data.
You could also make a copy so another disk or USB drive.
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My daughter's room is full of pictures. She also has a photo album (which is full, I have to buy a new one...). We both enjoy going through the pictures, and she shows it to everyone who is willing to sit down 15min to look at all of them and listen to the explanations. It gives her a lot of joy, as it does to me - and the cherry on top is that her mother scoffed at me when I gave it to Lily as a birthday present. It was below her expectations of what I should give, as everything I do. And in the end, it was a great gift.
After the lock-downs, I got a lot of support from clients that I had helped out during the pandemic. They sponsored the trips to Vilcabamba, where Lily had been moved, until I was able to finance that on my own again. As a thank you, all of our supporters got a letter with a picture of Lily and I. Until now I see those pictures in many households when I visit. There is something to photos that other items don't have.
How cool is that! Life is about making memories together and photographs capture this memories. I like the quote from Carl Lagerfeld: "What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce".
I didn't mention it in my blog, but since my kids are young they receive a personal photo album from me with photos of the past year. They are 15 and 17 now and still ask whether they will get another one every year. They still sometimes go through them. It does get harder to fill up the albums once they get older 😀
How great that your clients supported the trips to your daughter and what a nice and personal gift!
Physical photographs really have something extra...
They do. And it's awesome that your kids cherish those. And yes, when growing up, it becomes harder to take pictures. Not only that they're out a lot more, they also do less with the family and become quite opinionated about taking pictures of them :-D But with that background of getting them every year, maybe yours are more open to it.
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