This is a guest contribution by Kathy Rogers of Baltimore Photo Solutions
Saving family photographs is why I became a photo organizer. But a big part of that is recording the stories that go along with the photos. Photos without context and identifiers lose a lot of their value.
Recently, we’ve been cleaning out my mother-in-law’s apartment. We came across a few more photos I hadn’t already claimed, and sadly, many of them were stuck together. We couldn’t tell if there was writing on the back identifying who was in the images, and no one was left who could tell us the stories of the photos. So into the trash they went. I’m grateful that my father-in-law was into geneaology and wrote down many of the family stories.
I’m still trying to capture the stories that go along with the photos from my side of the family. I’ve tried to do this a variety of ways. Photo books are great. Lots of room for narrative, and easy for anyone to flip through them. You can even make extra copies for siblings or cousins. I’ve also tried to capture my parents telling stories. Sometimes about a picture, like the image below.
Just looking at that image, you might think it was a little girl. Actually, it was my grandfather with his great-grandmother, mother, and grandmother when he was a few years old. He was born in 1899. It’s important to capture the names to go along with the faces, even though we have family tree(s) and Bibles that record the generations. This not only told me the fact that little boys wore dresses back then, but also gives a glimpse into austere Quaker styles in turn of the century Philadelphia.
When there’s a longer story to capture, I like to use the app Saving Memories Forever. I can organize my father’s stories, my mother’s stories, and also collect tales from my friend’s mom all in the same app. One thing I have noticed while interviewing older friends and family is that they aren’t comfortable being videoed. Their posture and storytelling can get stilted and unnatural. They also don’t know what to do when you put a fancy microphone lavaliere on them, or stick a smart phone mic in their face. However, they’re usually very comfortable talking on the phone. So for longer stories that don’t work as video, I just try to get their voice. And I use this handy tool:
This microphone isn’t professional sound quality, but that’s OK. It looks and feels like a handset, and I’ve found that people of a certain generation are most comfortable with this kind of setup. There’s a button on the grip to start and stop the mic, so you have to watch that, but otherwise it works like a charm. Plugs right in to the jack on my iPhone, and away we go. I pick the story prompt from Saving Memories Forever, or create my own topic, and the oral history is recorded and filed away.
I hope these tips are helpful to you as we celebrate Save Your Photos Month. Having a backup plan is important, but capturing the stories that go with the pictures is a crucial first step in saving your family’s photos and legacy.
My name is Kathy Rogers and I am a certified personal photo organizer. Because so much of my life is digital, I understand how overwhelming it can be to deal with the thousands of photos we have scattered around on memory cards, phones, old hard drives, you name it. There are great systems out there for organizing, and backing up, your digital pictures. They are simple to learn, and simple to maintain. It takes some time to get everything set up but I can show you how to do that in manageable chunks of time, or you can hire a professional photo organizer (like me!) to do it for you.
I have always loved photos and the stories behind them, and have turned this passion into a business. I started out making my own scrapbooks as a teenager but really got into it after my son was born. Friends saw what I’d done for him, and asked me to do the same for their children. Add in some elderly relatives who needed to stay connected and a business evolved.
As I’ve learned more about photography, photo organization and digital scrapbooking, I’ve been amazed by the treasure troves of pictures tucked in the back of closets. It saddens me when there’s no one left who can tell us the stories in the pictures, but with a little detective work it’s amazing what you can piece together. I get the most joy out of taking those scary boxes away and coming back with a neat, organized (and safely preserved) photo storage system along with a beautiful custom photo book of the best of the best, with copies to go to other family members.
Bringing order to the photo chaos is my specialty, and my pleasure. Email me today for a free assessment.
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