A photo is worth a thousand words, or so it is said.
I like photo albums and have diligently built up a mini library of them over the years detailing my family life and other animals.
But it struck me the other day that I don’t do photo albums any more; since about 2006 my camera went digital and I no longer have hard copy prints – all photos are stored on my computer. I email photos to friends and family nowadays rather than post paper prints.
And it further struck me that if my computer was stolen or went phut! for whatever reason I’d lose all these “memories”.
My daughter sometimes picks up an album and is engrossed looking at old pix of her parents and friends, and, indeed, of her younger self. But she would never ask to look at photos on the computer screen.
Sometimes the old traditional pleasures are worth preserving. So, to this end, I have started albumising (I made up that word myself, feel free to use it) my photos from 2006. And I do this online.
There is a very good website that is easy to use and doesn’t cost the earth: http://www.monalbumphoto.fr/. The first time I used this site was to do a little album to celebrate my son’s 18th birthday last year: pictures of him at his birth and at various stages in his life up to and including his 18 years. I had about 10 copies made of this album and sent them to relatives.
Last week I designed and compiled a bigger album of our two-week holiday in England in 2010. We saw many friends and family so it is a great snapshot of our year. There are about 45 photos or so in the album plus captions etc and it cost 15 euros with postage and packing.
So now I’m drawing up plans to fill in the gaps and create albums from 2006 to today. It’ll take some time – not least deciding out of the thousands of snaps which ones to use.
You’re right digital cameras have put a stop to printing off photos to put in albums, such a shame really. I so love looking through old photo albums.
Good for you, I have the same niggling unease about never printing photos. It’s much nicer to look at printed copies than on the screen. I think the problem I may have (when I take a leaf out of your book/album and do what you’re doing) is being able to decide which photos to print, there are so many!
Tell me you back up your computer, pictures and all. Please!!!!
I feel just the same as you regarding digital photos (although I do back them all up on a memory stick too, and an external hard drive!) – nothing beats a ‘real’ photo album. For Christmas I made my mum a photobook of photos of her grandchildren. It was the first one I’d done, and it was a great success, so I’ll be doing more in future.
Jazz,
I’ve had an external hard dive thingy sitting next to my computer for about three years but haven’t plugged it in. But your comment was a wakeup call and I’ve now saved my photos and documents on it. Merci beaucoup!