Do You Have Memory Insurance? Why Digitizing Your Photos, Videos and Other Media Is So Important

Quick Reasons to Digitize Your Memories:

• Eliminate the risk of damage to items from fire, floods, and other unforeseen disasters
• Insurance against losing priceless photos, videos, and film forever
• Protect your one of a kind keepsakes from fading and deteriorating
• Immediate access to your memories from your computer, tablet, or smartphone
• Easily share photos, videos, and soundtracks with your family and friends
• Save space and free up clutter in your home
• Easily organize digital files
• Always know who is who in photos, slides, and negatives by making use of metadata
• Eliminate the need for obsolete equipment to enjoy slides, movie film, videotapes, and more
• Your family legacy will be preserved and protected for future generations!

Digitizing Photos and Home Videos is like having Insurance for your Memories

Most people have insurance in one form or another whether it’s for your health, car, home, rental, property, life, or anything else. Insurance serves to protect us in the event that something goes wrong while giving us peace of mind. Having homeowner’s insurance ensures that if there is ever a fire, flood, or other disasters, you will be reimbursed to make up for the loss or damages to your home and possessions. But, what would happen if you lost your more sentimental items?

We all have one-of-a-kind personal items that we consider to be priceless in terms of monetary value. For many of us, these irreplaceable keepsakes are in the form of captured memories and family history – your grandparent’s wedding album, the home videos of your children growing up, your 35mm slide collection from the 70s, or the 8mm film reels you inherited from your parents that you’ve never even because you don’t have a projector.

These photographs, slides, films, VHS tapes, and audio cassettes are worth immeasurable amounts more to you than the money your insurance company will value the physical materials. While some insurance policies may cover sentimental items, no amount of money can replace the loss of your family archive.

“Hard copy originals naturally fade and decay over time due to their chemical makeup”

Memories Fade: The quality of your photographs, negatives, slides, video/audio tapes, and film has been degrading since they were first created and continues to worsen as you read this article! Hard copy originals naturally fade and decay over time due to their chemical makeup. Degradation is also exacerbated due to the environment in which these items are typically stored. Factors such as temperature, humidity, light, dust, rodents, and insects can all lead to the demise of your captured memories. It’s only a matter of time before these mementos aren’t able to be enjoyed or even remembered across generations.

Digital Memory Protection: The only way to safeguard your family archives from the damaging effects of time and unexpected disasters is to have them converted to digital format. Once digitized, those photos, slides, negatives, and home movies will never have to be scanned again. You can scan photos yourself or use a photo scanning service. Think of it as your own personal memory insurance policy with terms that last a lifetime and beyond!

“We place a high value on these captured moments and consider them to be an important part of who we are, and so did our ancestors”

Enjoying and Sharing: There is something so personal and special about looking through old family photos and videos. We can go back in time and experience all of the positive emotions we had during cherished moments of our lives. We place a high value on these captured moments and consider them to be an important part of who we are, that’s why we constantly add to our collections by taking copious amounts of photos and videos on our phones every day!

Only in recent years have we had the ability to capture, store and share pictures and videos immediately, and we are so lucky to have this technology. But what about all those photographs we had developed into prints and VHS or camcorder videos we took before the digital camera? Or before that – the slides, negatives, reel-to-reel audio or 8mm/16mm films? Maybe some were passed on to us from our parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents.

Our elder family members captured these moments for many reasons:

• Help them remember life events that may have otherwise been forgotten
• Experience the range of emotions associated with reliving those events at any time
• Tell a story of what they did, saw, experienced, or accomplished
• Make sure they live on in the minds and hearts of their loved ones long after they’re gone.
• Pass on their history to future generations who want to know where they came from

We owe it to ourselves, our ancestors, and our descendants to make sure these captured moments live on to tell the stories of their past. While hard copy photographs, 35mm slides, 8mm film, etc. are historic items, they are vulnerable to lose and not convenient to access, view or share. As the world grows smaller, your family and friends can be anywhere in the world. Digitizing your media allows you to share photographs, home movies, and audio recordings with the tap of a finger.

Whether you decide to take on a scanning project yourself or use a photo scanning service, we’re here to help with all of your digitization needs.

Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

OwnerSmooth Photo Scanning Services

My father has been in the document scanning industry for as long as I can remember. I worked for his company Smooth Solutions, Inc. during summer breaks growing up and for a couple years after college. Wanting to venture off on my own, I gained experience in several careers including wholesale seafood sales as well as owning and operating a bakery for several years. When my father approached me with the opportunity to expand upon his already successful business by providing high quality, professional scanning services to the general public, I jumped on board. From personal experience, I recognize how important it is for most people to have their family memorabilia preserved for future generations and I want to be a part of helping others do that.