Summer memories

It's that time of year and schools are back in session. The West Coast Grands started back last week and the local Grands begin this week. Sometime in the next week or two my Senior granddaughter wants her Senior pictures taken - once she has found the perfect outfit, of course.  It's one of many milestones. 

I have taken fewer photos of the grandchildren this year. They are all too busy and don't want to spend the time. It makes me sad and I think about the days when they loved nothing more than posing for Nana's camera. As we get older, we become self conscious about our appearance. I'm as guilty as anyone. Who doesn't vet the holiday snapshots for ones that "don't make me look fat" or that have the best expression? 

I am wallowing in a bit of nostalgia at the moment as I have been scanning the photos in an old album from a family vacation in England in the summer of 1984, when my 40-something children were 4 and 2. The pictures are priceless but the prints are in horrible shape, with most of the color faded away. I am trying to restore them as I go but it's a dispiriting task. My scanner does not work with my new computer, so I am having to scan them into the old Windows 10 machine with it's yellowing monitors. As I considered my options, I remembered that I have the original negatives for these pictures. At first sight, they appeared pristine but scanning a few quickly made me realize that those, too, have deteriorated, with many showing tiny blotches where mold has eaten into the emulsion.

I like to say that photographs are a way to capture an instant and make it last forever but the truth is, photographs can be almost as ephemeral as our memories themselves. How we store our photographs matters. The brightly colored photos that came back from the lab in 1984 were stored in one of those popular "Magnetic" photo albums with the PVC pages. Between the glue on the acidic cardboard pages and the chemicals in the PVC, the prints didn't have a chance. 

Digitizing your most precious analog photographs is the best way to keep them long term. I'm gradually building an archive of family memories in my Forever account. As well as keeping the photos safe from future degradation, it makes them very easy to produce at a moment's notice. The "do you remembers" become so much more special when the proof is at your fingertips!!