In a recent presentation by Vint Cerf, a top exec at Google, he warned us of an impending "Digital Dark Age" whereupon all of our digital data might become inaccessible and obsolete, leaving very little record for future generations to know what life was like in the 21st century. One of his key recommendations was to start printing your photos and any other important documents you store digitally. Of course, many of us are scrambling to digitize our older family photos in the hopes of long-term preservation and now Mr. Cerf is telling us to do the exact opposite with our current photos. It's all very confusing. But here's the deal and it's exactly what I wrote about last November: Photo PRINTS are still one of the best and SAFEST methods of "backing up" your photos.
But don't get overwhelmed thinking you have to print EVERY photo you take. Our parents and their parents weren't taking selfies multiple times a day or taking photos of every meal they ate. They were much more selective in what they chose to photograph because film (and film developing) cost MONEY. Take a minute to think about how many photos you have from your childhood. I'd safely say NONE of us have THOUSANDS to peruse. Most of us probably have a couple hundred documenting our ENTIRE childhood years. But that amount is enough to bring back special memories and remind us of our younger selves. So pick your favorite 20-30 photos every month (maybe more if there's a special event) and print them out. I highly recommend using a high-quality printer, such as mpix, who uses archival-quality photo paper. I also recommend storing them in archival-quality albums and/or boxes for long-term preservation in a temperature-controlled room of your house. Chances are quite slim that our homes will be destroyed, so these photos most likely will outlive us by decades or longer. I recently held a client's family photo that was over 100 years old and it was in GREAT shape, all things considered.
If we truly DO have a digital dark age in the future, those couple hundred photos per year will more than tell our stories to future generations.
But don't get overwhelmed thinking you have to print EVERY photo you take. Our parents and their parents weren't taking selfies multiple times a day or taking photos of every meal they ate. They were much more selective in what they chose to photograph because film (and film developing) cost MONEY. Take a minute to think about how many photos you have from your childhood. I'd safely say NONE of us have THOUSANDS to peruse. Most of us probably have a couple hundred documenting our ENTIRE childhood years. But that amount is enough to bring back special memories and remind us of our younger selves. So pick your favorite 20-30 photos every month (maybe more if there's a special event) and print them out. I highly recommend using a high-quality printer, such as mpix, who uses archival-quality photo paper. I also recommend storing them in archival-quality albums and/or boxes for long-term preservation in a temperature-controlled room of your house. Chances are quite slim that our homes will be destroyed, so these photos most likely will outlive us by decades or longer. I recently held a client's family photo that was over 100 years old and it was in GREAT shape, all things considered.
If we truly DO have a digital dark age in the future, those couple hundred photos per year will more than tell our stories to future generations.
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