Bye-bye clunky mismatched albums filled with cracking pages and damaged snapshots. I’m bringing decades of old family photos into the digital age (and onto my computer) with the help of my Epson Fastfoto Photo Scanner. I purchased this efficient machine last year and have been tipping away at dismantling old albums and scanning hundreds—thousands—of pictures ever since. Covid-19 has given me plenty of time for the project. The scanner wasn’t cheap (around $500), but it has made the process a relatively easy, satisfying and fun job.
The hardest part isn’t scanning the photos, it’s making the emotional commitment to the switch. Once you take apart your albums there’s no going back. I had so much time invested in creating those albums back in the day, especially when the kids were little. I spent hours sorting and choosing the photos, arranging them on the sticky pages and adding them to the album. I used to create one album a year—starting with New Years, Emma’s birthday, Nick’s swim meets, Spring Break—I’m sure you’ve got the same thing for your family. But there were always piles of extra photos that didn’t make it into the albums. When digital photos became a thing, I eventually gave up altogether. Time was hard on those old albums. Some got water damaged and turned moldy, others just began to fall apart. As we downsized there wasn’t a place to display them and our family never looked through them anyway. I was sick of those damn albums. Digitizing made sense.
It’s bittersweet to look through all those old photos, remembering each stage of Nick and Emma’s development, seeing faces of treasured friends I’ve lost touch with over the years. But as I scan those memories into my computer they’re suddenly accessible in a whole new way! I can text them to my kids, friends and parents and share the fun of those long ago moments all over again. Here’s a quick peek at some of the photos I scanned today from 2003. The Epson FastFoto automatically touches them up so the pics look fresher than ever.
As for the physical snaps, I haven’t been able to (gulp) throw them out yet, but they’re headed to the trash eventually. I just have to work up the courage for that final step. Until then, I’m gonna keep on scanning!
Style Challengers 