Did you ever record a TV show on a VHS tape? Perhaps you taped a few episodes of your child’s favorite cartoon for a night with the babysitter? Or maybe there was a TV show that came on during work hours, so you recorded it so you could watch it later? If you’re like me, then you may have recently discovered some of those old television tapes, tucked in amongst your home movies. Which got me to wondering, what should I do with these tapes? Do they still have purpose or value?
Perhaps a man named John Baker, an ordinary attorney from Ohio can offer some insight into this issue.
John Baker began collecting Jazz film from the 1920s to the 1970s. He had a wide range of different types of films: some were theatrical shorts, some were television clips, and others were promotional material for clubs. It was his passion to collect these films, films that other people did not consider important or worth saving. Over his lifetime he collected one of the largest collections of Jazz film history outside of the Library of Congress. His films are now being carefully preserved by the American Jazz Museum of Kansas City, Missouri and will offer visitors a glimpse at some of the greatest jazz musicians who have ever lived. And it was Mr. Baker’s decision to save videos that others had thought too trivial or unimportant to save that will allow future generations to see musicians who would otherwise have disappeared into the annals of history.
So back to my original question, do the tapes that we saved from twenty years ago have value, even if they aren’t home movies or wedding videos? The answer is quite possibly yes. Every moment that has been caught on film encapsulates a part of history, from the outrageous commercials of the 80s to the seemingly unimportant news clips from your hometown. It may be too soon to know if the videos that you have will someday belong in a museum, but it is never too soon to preserve them, just in case.
Pictures and videos are snapshots of our former selves. They remind us of the people we were, where we came from and how those experiences shaped who we are today. Those of us with digitized, backed up versions of our life story are lucky, because sometimes the worst can happen to your most precious physical belongings.
This weekend, terrible tornadoes swept through the Midwest. Besides taking lives and destroying property, many residents were robbed of their photo albums and other memorabilia. Kelli Dombroski lost 30 years of memories when the tornado destroyed her garage, including many important photo albums with her childrens' baby pictures. While neighbors found some of her photos scattered around the area, most are lost forever.
"People ask me that question, 'How do you feel?' I'm speechless. There's no words to describe what happened to us."
This UK study shows that at 70%, the majority of us would be most upset if we lost our photos, compared to other highly-regarded physical assets. “Our photos are an
irreplaceable part of our histories, of the people we are and the
moments we’ve had. We can replace credit cards, keys, and most of our
gadgets and possessions, but not our photos. So it makes total sense
that people worry about losing their memories, " says Dr Rob Yeung.
If our personal albums are so important, why don't more people take action to preserve them? In my first blog post, I told you about some basement flooding that taught me the importance of digitization. I think it's the same for most people: unless you experience the threat of losing your keepsakes, it's easy to put off.
Sometimes, even those with digital photos and videos are at risk. Our co-worker, Megan had her entire life backed up on an external hard drive. When both her computer and that hard drive crashed, she broke down, certain she had lost everything. Thankfully, she gave the hard drive one last test before throwing it out, as the computer tech had told her to. There were her memories! "From now on, I'm backing up everything on private cloud-based internet storage. I've already experienced what it's like to lose everything, and I don't ever want to risk that again."
Posted by Linsey G on February 23, 2012 0 Comments
Do you ever take time to enjoy your digital photos? Many of
us are guilty of scanning old photos and uploading new pictures only to ignore
them. Memories aren’t meant to hibernate in computer storage, so give them some
fresh air by trying one of these ideas:
Log onto LiveOn.com. Our sister site helps you
share your best moments with loved ones. You can do that by building a timeline
of your memories that we’ll share with future generations of your family, or
sending a time capsule filled with personal keepsakes into the future. Here’s
how you create a time capsule gift for a loved one. Let’s pretend it’s for your
spouse. First, take those old wedding pictures, maybe some footage of the
ceremony and a few photos of your favorite memories since. Tuck them into the
digital time capsule with a personal webcam message. Set the time capsule to
deliver on your 30th wedding anniversary. LiveOn will give your
present on the date you’ve chosen. Imagine how meaningful it would be to open
that thoughtful of a gift!
Treat your photos like art. My husband bought gorgeous over-sized
black frames with white matting to display some photos I took of the Christmas
morning sunrise in Sonoma. Now our entry way reads more like a photo gallery than a functional hall.
Another fun option is printing on canvas, which looks professional and clean
for home or office display.
Print a photo book. Photo books for your coffee table are a
great throwback idea. They warm the home and show your guests what is important
to your family. A friend of mine printed a gorgeous photo book from her wedding
that was truly a piece of personal art. She said it was really easy to make online. The only company I've had experience with is Apple; my mom gave us a wedding book and the result was pretty impressive. For a wider scope of recommendations, read the 2012 reviews from Top Ten Reviews.
Posted by Linsey G on February 23, 2012 0 Comments
Kodak may be down, but the now bankrupt company wants you to know that it's definitely still relevant. A Kodak representative says 7 of this year's Oscar Best Picture Nominees were shot on Kodak film. Those films include The Help, Moneyball, War Horse, The Artist, The Tree of Life, The Descendants and Midnight in Paris.
The statement comes as the world-famous Kodak Theater drops its Kodak monicker - another casualty of the company's bankruptcy. Still, they're trying to focus on a comeback. “We continue to supply filmmakers with the products and support they
have come to depend upon from Kodak, and intend to emerge from our
reorganization even stronger,” says President of Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging division Kim Snyder. “We are still making billions of feet of
film, and many of those reels will be used on films contending for the
2013 Academy Awards.”
The company seems optimistic... Do you think they can survive re-organization? And on a brighter note, have you seen and enjoyed any of the 7 Best Picture Nominees shot on Kodak film?
Posted by Linsey G on February 21, 2012 0 Comments
I just found out Google now allows us
search by image, either by uploading a personal photo or pulling one from the
Internet. Right away I was very curious to find out just how much
information could be pulled from a private photograph. Could they recognize my
face and match it to my Facebook profile or other web listings? If so, how
would this affect privacy? Would someone who randomly photographed me be able
to track down all of my personal information?
The answer, for now, is no. After a couple days of testing,
I found the facial recognition technology to work only when the exact photo was hosted on the Internet. This version of Google Images is definitely a preliminary product useful in two other main areas.
My best search results came when trying to identify popular
art and architecture. I googled this personal photograph from my 1999 trip to
Italy and it properly identified it as the Trevi Fountain. Not only could I
find cool facts and history about the landmark, the search results refreshed my
memory about nearby sites, neighborhoods and culture. It actually brought a new
perspective to my Italian experience.
The second best use I found was for those with copyrighted
photos. Search your photo and you can instantly see other sites that are using
it. If you find a site that is using your photo without permission, you now
have a platform for recourse.
The premise of imaged-based search is exciting, but Google’s
version merely gives a glimpse of what is possible. That being said, I’m sure
this sort of technology will improve drastically soon, which could be both exciting for global information sharing and scary for those worried about personal privacy.
