What's going to happen to your photos.....

[stillcrazyman]

When I pass on, I suppose some of the printed photos will be around for a bit. But in time, it all passes into oblivion. Memories fade.
I recently saw a collection of photos from WWI of an elderly relative's father. They seemed to be so excited and eager to see more. Now my mum has them on dvd for herself. Keeping those memories 'alive' is the tricky part.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Oh, that will all be sold-off quick as can be. Tell you what AFB, I'll leave instructions that she's to PM you to see if you want to purchase anything. Us Nikon users have to stick together.

Lol! She's already been in touch!

 

[Cheese&Apple]

Lol! She's already been in touch!

Maybe it's not the cabana boy I should be worried about.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Maybe it's not the cabana boy I should be worried about.

Your quite safe! I'm spoken for!

 

[BJMRamage]

I just upload all photos to GooglePhotos and Facebook. I figure anyone searching or the Russians have access

Well...I have photo prints from my parents and maybe grandparents but they are sometimes lost/in boxes/etc. My prints are either in albums or in boxes or frames.

My digital collection has either been printed (on not-too-great paper), made into books, or into movies (Both DVDs and some on ["private"] YouTube. Each year i make a photo/video movie of that year for my kids. They like watching them (8 & 5 now) so, perhaps they'll still watch them for a few years. but when I am gone...the photos may fade.

 

[mollyc]

Oh, that will all be sold-off quick as can be. Tell you what AFB, I'll leave instructions that she's to PM you to see if you want to purchase anything. Us Nikon users have to stick together.

I’m Nikon!!!

 

[Apple fanboy]

I’m Nikon!!!

Aren't all the good people?

 

[Cheese&Apple]

I’m Nikon!!!

Ok, I'll add you to that list Molly.

 

[Bigtree]

It's possible to "look back" at the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century though the "hard copy" photos (prints, negatives, slides) that have been left behind by those who shot them, whether pro or amateur.

Even photographs that might have had "a connection to the shooter only" can still be interesting and informative. We may not know who took the pic, or why, but the pic itself still exists as an image to be viewed.

Within a family, such pictures were "passed on" to the younger ones. Downstairs we have a picture of my Dad on a tricycle, must have been taken around 1932 or so. It's faded and old, but it still "exists to be seen".

Doing so from the Twenty-First Century onward is going to become much more difficult, and in many cases simply impossible. Where are those personal/family pics today?

On smartphones and iPads or Androids, accessible only to the user. No user = no access.
Or on computers "as files" -- many or most of which will be lost after the death of the owner, perhaps even before (from "crashes" for which backups don't exist).

With the exception of those photos that exist "in the public record", I sense that the overwhelming majority of photos taken by private individuals are simply going to "disappear" with their owners.

The result is that those who live in the future will have "less of a photographic record of the times" (that we live in now), than they have of those who lived in the two centuries previous.

Is there something that could be done to "preserve" at least some of the images we take today for future generations to browse through?

I've got some ideas...

I tend to disagree with you. Because of the cell phones we are now seeing more videos and pics then ever before.
They are high rez and in color. why wouldn't they be seen in the future?

I'm interested in your ideas too.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I tend to disagree with you. Because of the cell phones we are now seeing more videos and pics then ever before.
They are high rez and in color. why wouldn't they be seen in the future?

I'm interested in your ideas too.

But where are you storing those cell phone pictures? In 30-50 years who is going to see them?
Your Facebook account? Probably won't be accessed after your gone.
Your phone? Probably locked and heading for landfill at some point?
Your computer will be locked and nobody will even know how to use one.

A printed image can be seen in 100 years. An electronically stored one, probably not.
After all the first thing someone will do when they buy your old tech is wipe it (assuming your kids/spouse don't do it anyway).

And this is assuming your HD doesn't just fail.

 

[kenoh]

When I'm gone my lovely wife will likely liquidate everything and head off to a warmer climate with the cabana boy. The last thing on her mind will be my photos. The best I can hope for is that she waits till I'm gone.

And that she sells your camera gear for what its worth, NOT what you told her it cost right?
[doublepost=1526969594][/doublepost]

Aren't all the good people?

Err... No, they aren't... A few of them use Pentax...

 

[steveash]

We were saying this the other day. My daughter is two, we already have tens of thousands of photos taken by us and family members. She will never look at them all and if we don't pick out a small number and put them in a printed album they will be lost forever. The album is a lost art. We treasure the ones we have from long-lost family and even our own childhoods. A single picture of a great, great grandmother is priceless but 200,000 on an antiquated incompatible hard drive of her every movement would get left to rot in a box in the garage!

 

[Nathan King]

We were saying this the other day. My daughter is two, we already have tens of thousands of photos taken by us and family members. She will never look at them all and if we don't pick out a small number and put them in a printed album they will be lost forever. The album is a lost art. We treasure the ones we have from long-lost family and even our own childhoods. A single picture of a great, great grandmother is priceless but 200,000 on an antiquated incompatible hard drive of her every movement would get left to rot in a box in the garage!

I agree. Much of the issue actually stems from having too much information. How much attention can you give an image whe you’re looking through 5,000?

 

[Cheese&Apple]

And that she sells your camera gear for what its worth, NOT what you told her it cost right?

Oh, good point and thanks for the reminder @kenoh

@Apple fanboy & @mollyc - sorry but I think Ken has rained on your parade.

 

[Bigtree]

But where are you storing those cell phone pictures? In 30-50 years who is going to see them?
Your Facebook account? Probably won't be accessed after your gone.
Your phone? Probably locked and heading for landfill at some point?
Your computer will be locked and nobody will even know how to use one.

A printed image can be seen in 100 years. An electronically stored one, probably not.
After all the first thing someone will do when they buy your old tech is wipe it (assuming your kids/spouse don't do it anyway).

And this is assuming your HD doesn't just fail.

I think a whole industry will emerge to look into our past, and it's beginning, look at the NSA, capturing all our phone calls. When someone gets arrested they take their cell phone and computers to looking the persons life. I can't believe a historian will over look all this information too. Our libraries are digitizing every book, our newspapers are closing at an alarming rate, all because no one wants to read the printed page. The hard drive is here to stay. All to be seen a hundred years from now; in some digital way.

 

[BJMRamage]

I agree. Much of the issue actually stems from having too much information. How much attention can you give an image whe you’re looking through 5,000?

Just last night, partly because I was going through a new backup process recently and partly because of this thread, I deleted 15-20 GB of RAW files. Photos that were either blurry, no real subject, one of multiple similar shots, etc. It was a pain to go through and sift through them...and I took most of the shots. I can't imagine years from now wanting to spend time sifting through all the mess.

 

[mpfuchs]

Just last night, partly because I was going through a new backup process recently and partly because of this thread, I deleted 15-20 GB of RAW files. Photos that were either blurry, no real subject, one of multiple similar shots, etc. It was a pain to go through and sift through them...and I took most of the shots. I can't imagine years from now wanting to spend time sifting through all the mess.

I did this when switching from Aperture to Lightroom a few years back.
Spent a couple week on an off and still didn't get it all done.
Now I'm trying to be more critical when I first load pictures into Lightroom and weed out most all the pictures that don't show much value.

 

[BJMRamage]

I did this when switching from Aperture to Lightroom a few years back.
Spent a couple week on an off and still didn't get it all done.
Now I'm trying to be more critical when I first load pictures into Lightroom and weed out most all the pictures that don't show much value.

yes. I am going to be moving from Aperture soon (I know, stuck around too long with it) and don't want to bring that large a library.

I try to immediately remove the blurry shots and then star rank the photos 1-5, 5 being best and hopefully I can then easily purge 1- and 2-star ranked photos...but i see I don't always.

 

[mpfuchs]

yes. I am going to be moving from Aperture soon (I know, stuck around too long with it) and don't want to bring that large a library.

I try to immediately remove the blurry shots and then star rank the photos 1-5, 5 being best and hopefully I can then easily purge 1- and 2-star ranked photos...but i see I don't always.

What are you switching to?
I'm still on the perpetual license so even though I don't get upgrades anymore, I don't have a monthly fee.
My plan is to stick with until i get sick of it and find a better replacement.

 

[Altis]

I agree. Much of the issue actually stems from having too much information. How much attention can you give an image whe you’re looking through 5,000?

Now that photos are easier than ever to take, few people actually take the time to take some really nice ones, develop them (digitally, even), and print them... or even just narrow down the ones actually worth keeping.

There's no point in having tens of thousands of photos that are of no interest or appeal, especially when 90% are pretty much duplicates of others.

As for OP, people who don't have any kids or at the very least nieces/nephews, the harsh reality is there won't be anyone who will be alive who will care that they ever existed.

I'd recommend cleaning up your photo collection and trying to stay on top of it so that the photos are actually worth sifting through for your own pleasure and memories.

 

[BJMRamage]

What are you switching to?
I'm still on the perpetual license so even though I don't get upgrades anymore, I don't have a monthly fee.
My plan is to stick with until i get sick of it and find a better replacement.

not quite sure. Everything I see so far either is subscription based (don't like the lease model) or not quite everything Aperture was. As 'sad' as Photos is, that may be my bouncing point. I feel like I should switch sooner than later and at the moment nothing is "the one" but Photos has Extensions that could be beneficial.

as a side note. I see Macpaw just announce Gemeni Photos...a way to cull your Photos library. flat-fee and subscription-model options.

 

[Fishrrman]

If I had the talents to create a large website (I don't), I'd design something like this:

A publicly-accessible site, maintained in perpetuity, designed to serve as a "life-repository" for ordinary people.

That is to say, a site that would become "a record" of a person's life, self-created (or created by someone close to that person, family, a friend, etc.), containing text, pictures, sounds, videos, etc.

This material could be uploaded now, but the owner could designate that it NOT become "public" until some specified date in the future (after the owner's death?).
Example: someone 60 years of age today (2018) might designate that his/her repository become "public" in the year 2060.

Of course, you wouldn't want to put EVERYTHING you have into such a repository.
Only those things you would want others to see after you're gone.
But it could still contain "enough" so that one could "leave behind" a large assortment of stuff. Some good, some mediocre, some terrible. But that would be up to others (in the future) to decide.

At least it would be "there" -- not lost, as will be most of what is now stored on personal digital devices and computers.

Such a site would be publicly-accessible and "browseable".
One could go there, and look for anyone else.

Not intended to be a "social-media" site (those are for the living).
But more "a record" and a "storage box" of digital things in general.

I'm not sure how "ownership after death" issues would be handled (copyrights, etc.).
But this could be worked out.

We have wikipedia for listings of well-known people.
How about a "prole-pedia" for the rest of us?

Want to see a site that provides [sort of] an example?
Go to findagrave.com.
The famous AND "the unknown" -- all on one site.
Anyone can create an entry there.
Granted, its focus is relatively narrow, but it could become one of the more enduring sites on the net.

 

[kenoh]

Just last night, partly because I was going through a new backup process recently and partly because of this thread, I deleted 15-20 GB of RAW files. Photos that were either blurry, no real subject, one of multiple similar shots, etc. It was a pain to go through and sift through them...and I took most of the shots. I can't imagine years from now wanting to spend time sifting through all the mess.

I am due a clean out day too. However it will have to wait. I patched my OS today and it broke my display driver. No prizes for guessing which it is!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Just keeping the keepers is the key. Trouble is it gets harder. I try to shoot less and less when I go out.

 

[Allyance]

One of the biggest changes in our lives in the transition from film to digital are the lost digital photos that we discard right away. In the old days we shot a roll of film, printed what we liked and put the negatives in a box for posterity. Years later when you go through those negatives you find images of people and places that have a lot more meaning in your life now or people are unexpectedly no longer around. With digital they are gone unless you archive just about everything.