Pre-historic (I Mean Pre-Digital) Photos

We were not the first to get on the digital camera bandwagon.  With a nice Canon 35mm camera we captured our family memories quite adequately until 2003 (the year our youngest was born).  Since that time I have amassed literally thousands of pictures of my family and have them well organized using Picasa on my desktop (and remote backup). 

But what about the boxes of pre-2003 photos I have?  Of the most important to me are the pictures of my first two children as infants.  I love having creating photo books, gifts, etc from my digital images and want the same flexibility (and piece of mind) of having them digitally archived.  I have been struggling with how best to go about it.  My options are to scan the photos and/or negatives myself or pay a service to do it for me.  Well, scanning myself would be way too time consuming and not produce great quality since I don't have a professional scanner.  In terms of services, most are rather expensive, especially if getting prints scanned.  But I found a partial solution.  Costco's photo department will scan negatives (not prints) and put them on CD for $2.99/per roll (approximately 40 images).  I tried it out with a sampling for about 300 negatives and I was pretty pleased.  Granted I don't have the negatives of  all my pre-2003 prints, but I have quite a few and I am taking them in today.  I figure this will give me a good start on bringing those photos into the modern age.

Where Does This Go?

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography via FlickrEvery year it is the same. The day after Thanksgiving I haul a mountain of Rubbermaid bins full of Christmas decorations up from the basement and begin the task of decorating for the holidays. As I unpacked my neatly organized treasures, it never fails that I end up asking myself, 'where does this go?' Aside from a few unique pieces that take their special place year after year, most of the items tend to get shifted room to room for no other reason than I can't really remember where I displayed them the previous year.

Well, last year I was particularly happy with how festive the house looked and I fully anticipated another bout of Holiday-induced dementia, so I decided to be proactive... I took digital pictures of all the dressed-up mantles, tables, windows, etc. and stored them on the computer in a folder named 'home decor'.

Well, I have to say, that tiny bit of effort 12 months ago saved me a lot of time wandering around the house placing and replacing my holiday decor. It took just a few minutes of flipping through the photos from my computer and the memories came flooding back. Of course, there were adjustments made and new items (from my annual post-Christmas clearance shopping frenzy) to incorporate, but overall the process went much smoother and quicker than years past.

So before that day when you take down your treasures and pack them away for another long hiatus, try snapping of few pictures of your house all decked out. Even if your photos don't necessarily look like they will be in next year's holiday edition of Real Simple, they just might streamline your decorating routine.

Not Sure If It's One of Oprah's Favorite Things, But It Sure Is One of Mine

photo by Flyinace2000I love to take pictures. I love to take pictures of my kids even more. But the number of pictures on my camera at any given time is sometimes overwhelming. I admit it's my own fault. I procrastinate transferring my photos from the camera to my computer and then onto my photo sharing sites. Technically, it's not hard, but it is just one more step before I can have fun editing and sharing my photos.

Well, I found the solution..the Eye-Fi memory card - the Share version. I have seen it advertised for awhile and thought I would give it a try before I no longer recognized those adorable faces captured with my camera.

It works just as any other 2 GB memory card with one huge, huge advantage...it has Wi-Fi built right into the card. The result...you can automatically transfer photos from your camera directly to your computer and to 20+ photo processing or sharing sites (Kodak, Smugmug, Flickr, Facebook, and many more) with all the effort it takes just to turn on your camera!

Set up is easy. All you need is a wireless network and a usb port. Plug in the receiver to the usb port and it automatically detects your wireless network and configures your memory card. You specify where the pictures should go on your computer and how you want them organized (i.e. which folder, what name) and which sites you want your photos to be uploaded to.

Now, after you take some pictures, all you have to do is turn your camera on and presto the downloads begin (no cables, no card readers, nothing). If your computer isn't turned on, no problem. Eye-Fi will send your pictures to the web-based Eye-Fi service and then on to your specified photo services. Once your computer is back on it will download those photos to your computer.

As I mentioned, I have the share version, but there are fancier ones available that let you connect from any hot spot Wi-fi network and let you geotag. There is also a more basic one that just uploads to your computer (not to photo web sites).

A couple disadvantages worth mentioning:

1) Doesn't help get pictures off any existing memory card in your camera.
2) Doesn't transfer video that you may film with your camera.

I have been using this for about 6 months and I love this thing! I walk in the door, turn on my camera, and forget about the photos until I am in the mood to sit down and edit, print, or share them.

They run from about $80 - $130. Like about 90% of the things I own, I bought mine at Costco for about $10 cheaper. If you are looking for something to put on your Christmas list or something for the photographer in your life, I highly recommend this!

Check it out: eye.fi

Update on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:48PM by MidLifeMom

Looks like Eye-Fi is coming out with video upload as described here.