Making memories last

Since the rise of digital photography it's become easier to back up your precious memories.  Hard drives, online services, multiple copies of print albums, you name it.  Personally we have our images backed up both to a secondary hard drive and an archived set of DVD's.   But what about those images from the past? The ones from your parents, grandparents and beyond?  The ones that are likely the only copy of that precious memory, on paper!  How can you protect them from damage/loss/theft?

Enter GoPhoto!  Now, you could sit down and scan each image, tweak/correct it, save it, upload it to an album so you can share it etc.  But who has that kind of time now a days? I don't, that's for sure!!!  When GoPhoto approached me and offered to show me what they had to offer I jumped at the chance.

Just to make sure I gave them a variety, I raided my mom (and grandma's) photo albums.  I sent loose pics, badly damaged pics, and pics still in their album pages.  The process was really simple.  On their site you plug in how many images (or slides, negatives or even videos) you're sending and they spit out a UPS label.  You box it up how you want (they give you suggestions) and drop it off at your nearest UPS store.
A few days later you get an email that they have your order (small snafu with mine, UPS said it was delivered but I hadn't seen an email. A quick email to support and we were all set.  They had my order and it was processing).

About 2 or so weeks after that I got another email from them telling me that my scans were ready to be viewed and paid for (you don't pay for them until you've seen the previews and you only pay for what you keep).  Once I'd settled the bill they shipped my originals back. 

When they arrived I found that each batch of photos was tagged with a tracking number and bar code - no losing pics here! They'd reassembled the album pages that I sent (or at least I assume they did since they were back in their rightful place). 

In my box was also the free DVD that they provide with all your images.  I was even surprised to find that they included a directory of all the images resized for the web in case I wanted to share them again.

Overall I'm really happy with the experience and the images that they scanned.  These images that rarely ever saw the light of day can now be shared with all the family (and have been, we've had quite the chuckle of a bunch of these that I shared to fbook - which BTW is SUPER easy, just drag/drop!).


I definitely plan on using GoPhoto again, I have another set of pics from the other grandparents afterall!!!  Plus I have about 25 old VHS tapes that need moved to DVD and off my office floor!

Now, to share just a few of the scanned images...some of these are over 80 years old!

My adorable grandpa!

Gram and her brother

My beautiful gram!

My mom and dad!

Brother and I as babes

Disclosure: GoPhoto kindly scanned a bunch of my old personal pics for free.  I am not paid or compensated in any other way for mentioning them. They did not, however, supply my opinion, which is 100% my own. I promise that my reviews are always honest and never misleading to my readers.