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Digitizing Photos Damaged by Mold, Mildew, and Insect Damage: What Can Be Saved? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Biological damage is one of the most common threats to stored photos, more common than fire, more common than flooding, and often more destructive than simple aging. Mold, mildew, and insects just need a damp closet, a cardboard box, and...

The Real Cost of Waiting: How Every Year of Delay Degrades Your Analog Media Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Every year you wait to digitize your photos, tapes, film, and slides, you lose a little more of them, and some of that loss can never be undone.  This slow, ongoing pattern of photos tapes deteriorating over time is exactly...

What Is OCR and How Does It Make Your Scanned Documents Searchable? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Scanning a document only helps you if you can actually find it later. A folder full of PDFs named "scan001," "scan002," and "scan003" is not much better than the paper box it replaced. This is where OCR document scanning comes...

APS Film Cartridges: How to Digitize the Forgotten Camera Format of the 1990s? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Millions of APS cartridges are sitting forgotten in drawers, closets, attics, and old camera bags right now.  If you grew up in the 1990s, there's a good chance your family owned one of those compact point-and-shoot cameras that used the...

Preserving Sports Memories: Digitizing Game Day Photos, VHS Highlight Reels, and Team Film Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Every athlete's career lives on through photos and game tape long after the final whistle blows.  That state championship photo, the VHS tape of a walk-off home run, and the box of team pictures from decades of Little League seasons...

How to Create a Digital Time Capsule for Your Children or Grandchildren? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

A time capsule buried in a box can rust, rot, or get lost in a move. A digital time capsule for kids never has that problem. It lives online, backed up in more than one place, ready to open whenever...