Best ways to archive your summer vacation photos

The summer of 2022 has officially ended. Did you go on a long-delayed trip due to Covid? Did you attend your annual family reunion? Or maybe you planned a “stay-cation” and remained local. Whether you traveled to an exotic destination or picnicked in a park, the memories you made might fade over time, but any photos taken should last forever. 

It’s common to capture photos in-the-moment via our phone. What’s not common is to continue their preservation journey to ensure their accessibility and security.

Here are some simple steps and reminders for digital photos:

• Upload to the cloud, add to your computer and/or save to a hard drive. Remember that hard drives, however, are not a long-term solution; they can fail or break. If you just put them on a shelf for years, they might not remount. 
• Migrate those assets to a newer hard drive or to a cloud server. This is your best way to maintain them for the future. 
• Make sure you backup your phone regularly so you don’t lose any photos. Make sure you keep the files in more than one place in case there is a failure. Redundancy is key.

• Add information about your photos to the files or create a document to track that information. Many cloud programs help with this through facial recognition, time and location stamping. Any information you can add will help future generations know their history.

Here are some simple steps and reminders for physical photos:

• If placed in albums, make sure they are archival and acid-free for long-term storage. (Example: Gaylord Archival® Photo & Negative Cold Storage Kit)
• Store negatives in archival sleeves. 
• Keep your albums and photos in the house and not in an attic, basement or garage where light, humidity and/or temperature can degrade your photos. 
• Think about scanning or imaging your physical photos both for ease of access and sharing and to protect your physical copy. Once imaged you will need to access the physical copy less.
• Anything framed should either not be placed in direct sunlight or should be behind UV protective plexiglass. This can be done through professional framing or by purchasing pre-made frames in the correct photo sizes.