Share your photo/slide/document/etc digitizing progress!

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Share your photo/slide/document/etc digitizing progress!

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Started 6 months ago by Ginger
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Ginger
Member

Hello! It’s been quite a while since I posted on here but I’ve still been maintaining and keeping up with my organizing and de-cluttering.

Several months ago I purchased a scanner and met with my Grandpa. I asked if I could borrow the family pictures and slides so I could scan them in and have a copy (and rescue the pictures from the sticky albums of doom). Together we sorted through all the pictures and slides and threw away hundreds and hundreds of meaningless ones. He was thrilled to clear up the space and I’m thrilled to help and get copies (because I know when the originals get passed on, I’ll never see them again).

So now I have a box of photos and a box of slides to scan in, organize and label. Right now I’m doing the slides and have about 600 done. From the looks of it there is about 400 to go.

I’m starting to go crazy! I could scan all day but it’s the labeling that’s killing me lol! I really would like to at least finish the slides this week though because it’s the only week I have off for a long time.

So I just made this thread for motivation!

Have you finished a digitizing project? Are currently working on one?

Posted 6 months ago #
sleepykitten
Member

I'm working on a digitizing project! And I could definitely use some motivation! It sounds like your project is going great.

I have a lot of sentimental papers and photos in various stages of organization, and I decided recently to:

a) Digitize them (I would never be able to get rid of them otherwise, though there have been some things I've been able to just shred)

b) Create one memory book using Blurb (or a similar service-but I think I'm going with Blurb) that has the "best of the best" scans and photos and put a CD of digitized "b-sides" in the back of the book

c) Get rid of pretty much all the hard copies (there are a few things I will keep in hard copy, such as a piece of ephemera from when my husband proposed, but for most things, the digitized version is sufficient)

This wasn't an easy decision for me, but I think it is working out really well. I am feeling lighter and less tied to the past. Lugging around boxes and boxes of sentimental papers was starting to feel like a burden - and I'm still quite young.

I have a crazy dream that I may be able to order the Blurb book by the end of the long Thanksgiving weekend. That's probably unrealistic, but it would feel really, really good.

Posted 6 months ago #
luxcat
Member

you have great timing

I have already scanned a good bit of my photos but the time has come to finish up organizing the paper photos (and scan any key ones I might have missed) and also to finally sort out the hundreds of digital pics I have and keep only the best... I had all the slides scanned so have those to sort through as well.

my goal is to have this done by Dec 29th. I think if I schedule a half hour to an hour a day I can do it.

best of luck everyone!

Posted 6 months ago #
Ginger
Member

Sleepykitten, wow your memory book sounds fabulous! I understand how miserable it can be lugging around boxes of the past. I’m sure at LEAST you’ll get a good chunk of the book done by the end of break! Is it going to be fairly large? I had thought about starting one too but I’m not ready for it quite yet.

Luxcat, that sounds great!! I wish I could pace myself like that. I have a hard time lighting a fire under my rear so if I get started, I better just keep going while on the roll.

I got another 42 slides done, haha.

Posted 6 months ago #
ninakk
Member

I started using a digital camera a few years ago and on my personal scale the amount of photos has exploded entirely (nothing in comparison with some other members' amounts, but completely overwhelming to me). I have gone through half of them to get rid of doubles and triples, but now that I know a bit more about photography I could probably get rid of a bunch more as well as work on the ones I will keep.

iPhoto is a program that I like due to its nifty smart folders and so these days I'm trying to at least add the correct key words when I import from the Canon-made folders (dislike their software but prefer to transfer from camera with it). The amount of folders has also gone up, meaning there's more organization than before, but as a conclusion I could say I'm halfway with all aspects.

The article published a couple of days ago was a good one:
http://unclutterer.com/2011/11/22/how-to-preserve-photographs-worth-keeping-in-three-simple-steps/

And a few good tags:
http://unclutterer.com/discuss/tags/photos
http://unclutterer.com/discuss/tags/scanning
http://unclutterer.com/discuss/tags/documents

The scanning of quite a bunch of documents is on my list of Tickler projects.

Posted 6 months ago #
Mimi
Member

Very very good timing! I have scanned a lot of pictures (and books) within the st year. in summer, i stopped due to garden related tasks. dh and i plan to go to the uni at sqturdqy, i have some uni work to do and he planned to scan his pictures. he has 1.5 meters of foto albums o scan, o-oh :) we will need more than one saturday....

Posted 6 months ago #
sleepykitten
Member

Ginger, I'm going to try and "cap" the memory book at 100 pages. Which I guess is pretty long/large, but it's NOTHING compared to the vast quantities of stuff I have now. One of the interesting decisions in making the book is deciding whether I want it to be public or private. There are some things I've saved that are valuable to me in remembering who I was at various moments in life, but that might be hurtful to my loved ones. I think I've come to the conclusion that the book will only include things I would be comfortable sharing with close friends and family, and not anything too dark or embarrassing (I'll keep those things as digital b-sides).

ninakk, just yesterday I started deleting some digital photos! It's true that I have way more photos from the past couple years than previously (though I was always something of a snapshot nut). When I first got my digital camera, I took it everywhere. Lately, I've been intentionally leaving it at home when I want to prioritize being "present" at an event or a place. When I go on vacation, I try to alternate a day "with" and a day "without" and I've found the camera-less days are almost more enjoyable.

Posted 6 months ago #
luxcat
Member

when my digital camera broke last year I didn't replace it, figuring when I finally replaced my phone (just now did that this week) I would just use that camera for most things. the new phone geo-tags, dates, and with some training can even tag people you photograph often, so I'm looking forward to seeing if that feature can help me get my digital photo collection better under control going forward.

still gotta sort out the mess I made before hand tho :) but I'm looking forward to revisiting some lovely vacation memories.

Posted 6 months ago #
sleepykitten
Member

Oh my goodness, digitizing is exhausting. It takes a while and it is also very emotionally draining to look at so many photos/journals/etc.

Whew!

Anyway, I've put several hours into the project this weekend. How is everyone else doing?

Posted 6 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

for years i thought my parents were so weird.
we went overseas for two years in the seventies and they shot ONE ROLL of film.
that is it. one solitary roll.
then that roll got dropped in a lake and it was only because a friend worked for kodak that any of the images were saved at all.
there is one thin album of photos of myself until i was 22 years old.
and that's all.
and now i am so grateful that i do not have boxes and shelves full of photos to deal with.

my husband is the same.
except when he was five years old, his parents lost their entire house and contents in cyclone tracy.
they have all been a bit detached from material things ever since.

however, my parents hit the road again in the mid- nineties and this time it was with a camera, and there are miles of photo clutter.
mum has gone digital lately though and has no concept of keeping her hard drive lean and fast.

Posted 6 months ago #
Another Deb
Member

I am digitalizing the slides my grandfather took back in the 40's-early 60's. There are boxloads and bagloads of them and most are blurry, or contain scenery that is meaningless without people in them. I was able to toss many. The precious ones are still numerous and that labelling is a task. Luckily Grampa was meticulous about dates and places on most.

I am also digitizing the very old family history pictures and documents and trying to create a family history publication of some kind. This is taking years! People keep coming up with more stuff for me. Last year it was a huge bag of negatives from my childhood that Mom downsized to me. I love doing it but my day (and most nights) job is keeping me busy and we have been travelling on school breaks quite a bit, when I want to also be doing family history stuff.

I have been loading images onto flashdrives and bringing my laptop when I travel. That way I can be writing, labeling or sorting when waiting for other things to finish, like the wash cycle at a campground.

Posted 6 months ago #
Ginger
Member

Ninakk, Thank you for the links!! I’m interested in iphoto but we all have a PC! Lol. I am perfectly fine just sorting my photos into folders and keeping it on a storage device but I’m looking for a user-friendly program that my Grandparents will be able to use. I am organizing the photos by decade and making subfolders of any event where a lot were taken (most of them aren’t dated so it’s mine and their best guess). They want to be able to search for individual people though, so something where I can “tag” people would be great. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Sleepykitty, it is totally a personal choice but I think I’d do the same thing about keeping a book “safe” for anybody to come along and read it. I’d be way too stressed making sure that it remains private otherwise lol! Way to go for your weekend progress!!!

This really IS draining but it’ll feel so great when it’s all done. I finished scanning in the slides, YEAH. There were almost 1000 of them. For my personal collection I’m certainly going to delete LOTS of them (such as, I really, really don’t want a hundred baby pictures of my aunt who no longer speaks to us), but I’m keeping them all until I get copies sent out to my family and they can do what they want with theirs.

Now I’m labeling and scanning the prints!

Posted 6 months ago #
Mimi
Member

to share the digitizig progress:
DH spent 4 hours in the scannning room, and about 3 more to download the pictures from the server, to rename them and get them sorted (by year) and uploaded to the dropbox to have them at home. whew. progress: 2 of 11 (huge) albums scanned and organized.

Posted 5 months ago #
ninakk
Member

I am onboard but have been overwhelmed to an extent that I haven't wanted to touch the scanner. There obviously had to be a reason, so I figured out I was hesitant to have all of it on my computer. Turns out it would have been clutter to me and I've solved it so far by deciding against scanning recipes altogether; will try them first and then type into software, chuck the paper version into recycling. This makes only a minor dent in the mountain, but has been useful in the sense that I have practiced some Justin Case previously, which now feels like a burden.

Goals of document digitizing are:
- Weed through files on the computer
- Select brutally which papers have to be scanned and which are Justins
- Scan, name and archive an item during the same session; don't leave files in scanner folder

Posted 5 months ago #
Mimi
Member

seems to be an elaborate scheme, ninakk, you can do it :)

Posted 5 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

i confess, i don't even own a scanner....but from time to time i snap photos of documents/recipes/business cards with my iphone and save it to evernote

Posted 5 months ago #
Sky
Member

I'm sorting and digitizing my parents slides. I was going pretty well until I had surgery. I've got to get back to it.

Posted 5 months ago #
Stella
Member

Sleepykitten - you really inspired me to do something with my old papers. While I leave them in my apartment back home (I live overseas for my work), I always wonder if I actually need them - but since I am quite a collector or memories, I do want them nicely organized and scanning them and making them into a book is a WONDERFUL idea! I never thought of that.
I think I might do the same with my old journals (although I would never get rid of them, but for back up)

Thank you for inspiring me!!!

Posted 5 months ago #
ninakk
Member

Stella, if you're on mac, you can use iPhoto to make pdf books with book layout out of your pictures and you can print them into paper (through Apple printing service) or save them as pdf.

Posted 5 months ago #
sleepykitten
Member

Stella - I'm glad I inspired a project for you! :) Good luck. I didn't finish the book last weekend, but I am getting closer - I'll keep posting progress here as I go.

Ninakk - I agree completely that scanning unnecessary items just creates digital clutter, which nobody wants either. I've been trying my best to be ruthless before I start scanning (though it is easier said than done).

Mimi - Sounds like you made significant progress! Keep it up!

Posted 5 months ago #

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