Digital photos…from 1970s and 80s

I recently received my life on DVD. No, not a made-for-TV movie, although I think Ashley Judd would portray me quite well. I sent my photos from the 1970s, 80s and early 90s to scanmyphotos.com. Lots of people worried that these precious moments caught on camera would get lost in the mail, or somehow get destroyed. it was possible, but I decided to risk it.

I found out about scanmyphotos.com from my dad, who sent me a link to a New York Times article more than a year ago. Scanmyphotos.com touted they can scan 1,000 photographs for $50+tax and shipping. I originally thought that I might have a hard time coming up with 1,000 photos. Not exactly. I am now up to more than 4,000 photographs (of course, this includes about 1,000 from Scott’s stash) and I’m not done yet.

The company does provide a unlimited photos box (fits up to 2,000 standard size photos), that includes priority mail shipping, for $125. I realized I needed three boxes, which is pricey. Upon visiting their website, I noticed they were on twitter, so I decided to follow them. They are very active on the micro-blogging service, and even answered some of my questions I asked them directly. I also found out they were running two promotions, saving me $150.

What started out as a $50+tax+shipping purchase became a more than $300 dent on our credit card. But the alternative (me scanning 4,000+ picture by hand) was not an option, and I wanted all of my pre-digital memories available with just a mouse click.

Memories like these…my sister and I with Grandma and Grandpa Hatteberg, sometime between 1975-1977. Both my grandma and grandpa in this picture have since past away, but I will always remember them as they looked in the late 1970s.

Actual photographs will fade over time and become unrecognizable, but my will live on digitally as a one of the more than 6,000 jpegs stored on our external hard drive.

Scanmyphotos.com provides precise instructions on how to prepare your photos, even a video. I won’t go through them, but it was one of the most difficult parts of the process. There was an additional cost for optional services like photos that were scanned in groups, rotated right side up, and if you wanted a signature verification.

Another time consuming part of this was removing the photos from albums. The worst culprits were photos from the 1970s and early 1980s. Some of the photos were stuck like super glue in the albums, and despite my desperate attempts, would not budge.

I had two boxes ready to mail, but at the last minute decided to send only one, just in case. It was returned to me with all the original photos neatly packed and a DVD with 1,800 scanned photos in less than seven days.

Needless to say, I have already mailed my second box.