The Importance of a Single Old Photo

It’s so interesting what happens to people when they start to prepare their photos for a scanning project. Pictures that were not even a part of their thinking just days earlier or had once been moments a photographer captured for their family so long ago have become quite critical.

I have been trying to figure out why those important photos are not displayed on mantles or in digital frames above the fireplace or as part of slide shows available to family and friends on Flickr or other sites. And I believe I know the answer. While the present is with us day in and day out, the past is only with us when we open the door and let it in. However, during those moments when the past does come calling, it is a strong, almost irresistible force that must be reckoned with.

We’ve all gotten songs in our heads that we remembered we liked back then. I’ve spent hours trying to find it online, or even find different versions of it. I didn’t have it in my collection because for years, it wasn’t important enough to have. But then, it became part of my thinking and it couldn’t be denied until it was located, downloaded and made part of my collection.

We have visions of our parents, or our early friends or aunts and uncles and even our kids when they were little. While we do keep many of them in our thinking, they are the images we have chosen as representative of these people. But compare that image of your Mom in your head with that photo of her with her friends when she was 18 and living in Brooklyn. They are quite different visions and without seeing those photos, we’d fall back onto a representative image path we have of them—instead of the multi-faceted road they actually walked on,

The late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman had a song called “My Old Man” where he talks about his father not long after he died. One of the verses was about his Dad in his early days—fighting in World War II and the things he did before he met his Mom and shortly after became “My old man.”

They all had full lives above and beyond the one we share or shared with them. Their photographs capture them in times that we might not have been a part of but were a big part of their lives nevertheless. There were also moments, captured on film, that express early days in their relationship with us. I have photos of my parents when they only knew me for just a year or two. No long history yet. No conflicts. No lessons, lectures, generation gaps, estrangements, reinvigorated relationships, them growing older, meeting their grandkids and finally the slowing down and ultimately their passing. They are fresh and real and are big parts of our relationships with them.

All these images are there. Right in those boxes they way they were (and many still are in my basement). My kids never knew their grandfather so I’m so lucky to be able to point to him and tell them about his smile or his compassion and how much fun he was. But more than that, there’s nothing like my children pointing to his picture and saying ”Gee, you smile just like him” or “was he as kind as he looked?”

Those photos of your family are in your basement subject, to the humidity or in your attic, subject to the dryness or in albums, falling victim to the chemicals in the plastic you thought would protect them. Please scan them and preserve them, either via the Scan Zone or through some other way so they won’t fade or be destroyed or rendered useless by their storage. When you finally do think of them and do want to show them, they will, at that moment, be the most important portrayal of the past you have. Keep them alive.

Scan-a-thon for Local Food Pantry is Off and Running

The Scan-a-thon for People to People, Rockland County's largest food pantry is off and running. The Scan Zone will scan photos, slides, convert VHS to DVD and more for its donors and 30% off the top of each bill will go to People to People--in cash.

I'm thrilled to be involved in this one. There are 49 million people in the U.S. who are "food insecure," or unsure of where their next meal is coming from. That's one in six people! In New York State and the county I live in, Rockland County, those statistics are very similar and it means that about 40,000 people are in that situation tonight. In fact one in eight people are receiving some sort of emergency food aid in the U.S. Nearly 37 million people!

The truth of the matter is that if this Scan-a-thon can raise meaningful money to purchase food and that food gets right out to people who really need it, then what powerful a program this is. Think of it, someone who was mulling over scanning their photos anyway will have them scanned and, at the same time, will see money go to People to People--not from them--but from the Scan Zone. The client doesn't donate a penny. I'm quite sure that if that client wanted to add to that donation to the food pantry, that would be alright with everyone.

The Scan-a-thon is a great idea and it will be used for other organizations whose donor base wants to see funds flow to the organization they are connected to without having to come to them to write more checks. There will be additional Scan-a-thons announced over the next few months but this one for People to People leads it off.

It seems to me that more things like this are needed. We are at a time when need is increasing very fast and the resources to satisfy that need is shrinking at alarming rates. We are seeing the first decrease in philanthropy in almost a generation at a time when places like food pantries and food banks are, in many cases, seeing their clients double in number.

There's an ominous statistic from Feeding America, the umbrella group for almost 90% of hunger organizations. That is that more than half of food pantries in the country say they are in danger of having to shut down because of either a lack of funds or a lack of access to food they can afford to acquire and redistribute.

So it's only natural and it's absolutely important to do as many Scan-a-thons as the Scan Zone can. There are many organizations out there that need help. This can be our way of joining the fight to help make our communities better and help put people in a good place. If you want information on the People to People Scan-athon, simply go to the Scan Zone Facebook page. Believe me, someone you know is in need--they probably would never want to let you know about it, but they are. These fundraisers can help make it better for them.

Give Mothers and Fathers a Gift That Will Transport Them

One of the great things that can tie a family together is their photographs. They chronicle the unity we tend to find in our families and when put together in a collection, they can bring the strongest individualists to their knees, surrendering to their memories. Who hasn’t had their hearts opened wide by seeing their parents or grandparents or even themselves in younger days? We see whom we are as well as see where we came from and can transport ourselves to another time, just by viewing our photo collections.

For this Mothers Day and Fathers Day, let me suggest something. Instead of a typical, sincere but run of the mill gift for them, think about giving them something they could really get their hands around—their past. Give them the story of their lives by taking their photos, having them scanned and saved to DVD. You’ll be giving them the warm feelings that come with recollecting their favorite times and, at the same time, you’ll be saving their photos from deterioration, assuring future generations will be able to see them.

Think of it…..you can collect their photos, put them in an order that would make sense to them, have them scanned and put into a medium they are comfortable with. You can then sit down with them to watch and listen as they talk about people, places and things that were so important in their life story.

You can import the photos into your computer and turn them into a slide show with music or we can do it for you. It will end up on a DVD, which they can watch on their own TV and you can watch it with them. Or you can take those photos—even with music--and put it on a photo site or even put it on YouTube. There are so many ways to use the pictures or show the pictures; but it all relies on one thing—getting those family pictures scanned. Without them in a digital format, they continue to be at risk from damage, poor storing, heat, humidity, dryness and a host of other things.

Mothers Day is next month; Fathers Day is the month after that. There’s a reasonable chance your parents even got married somewhere in the latter part of spring. There is still time to have their photos scanned for them and do the related work to make a presentation.

Think about it. With every passing year, the value of those we’ve encountered along the way or the moments we shared with those we love become more cherished. I let the opportunity to do that pass until it was too late and my parents were gone. Many of my friends did too.

This gift will allow the doors of emotion to swing wide open. Most of our parents lived in a time when a photograph was seen as a portrait of the moment. Give all those moments back to them so they can relive each one over and over again.

Rescue Your Important Photos from the Cruel Fate of Deterioration

It seems like I’ve been heading out to visit relatives on the holidays for more than 50 years…Actually, I have! We all have--whether for 50 years or less. There are certain days of the year you get dressed nicely, pack up and go.

The one thing most of our holiday celebrations have in common is that someone takes a picture of someone. Sometimes, the celebration included a large amount of picture taking. People who are now passed on or are quite old today were young back in those photos. Real depictions of our lives could be found in the composition and the background of those pictures. And, for all of us, any photo taken prior to the last 10 years was probably done via film and printed on paper.

Where did we put those important, isolated stories of our lives? For most people, they wound up in boxes and stored in the basement or attic. Those seeking to display or protect those photos would put them in albums first and then put them in the boxes in the basement or the attic.

Over time, people died or divorced or moved and those photos were shuffled around to different places—different basements or attics. As the photos grew more distant in time from the day they were taken, we tended to treat them with less care than the ones recently snapped.

The bottom line is our photos were being destroyed. Many already are and many will be there soon. What’s worse, we may have originally thought we were protecting them by putting them in albums when, instead, we were actually dooming them to become faded, colorless blobs with little or no relevance.

Here’s why and what you ought to do about. When we put our “best” or most important photos in albums we didn’t realize the poly vinyl chloride in the plastic would literally suck the color and the luminance of the photo right out. So the first thing to do is get them out the albums and into Ziploc bags. You could take the opportunity of getting them scanned at the Scan Zone (1,000 photos for $250), but the most important thing is to get them out of those albums.

Once scanned, you could create digital photo albums that are easily accessible online. They could be available publicly or in a password protected location. Or, if you want, you could have the digital images made into a physical photo book. More than that, you could even put them back into an environmentally safe album, without the chemicals or adhesives that marred the original album.

If your boxes are down in the basement or in the attic, get them out of there. You could get them scanned onto DVD and put one copy in a safe deposit box and one in your computer or online service. Then if you still want the physical photos, put them in Ziplocs and store them in a cool dry place that’s not subjected to too many temperature changes. A closet works. Keep in mind though, the best those photos will ever look is today. They will be subject to additional deterioration even if you seek to protect them.

That’s why scanning them to DVD is important. They will be improved and even rescued via the scan and they will be stored in a way where they will be safe. Every decade or so, you can make copies of the discs using the best technology of the time and they will easily last, without deterioration, for a half century or more.

Most of those smiling, happy older people in our photos are gone now. Sometimes the generations after ours won’t even know who they are. By digitizing them, labeling them and storing them, they will live on for generations. Think about that when someone takes your picture today. And don’t forget to kiss your old, sweet aunt.

A Simple Fundraising Concept Based on Photo Scanning

Let me tell you a little more about Scan-a-thon. I got an email asking me for a little more information about it and here's what I sent Perhaps I can answer a question you might have.

It's actually a simple fundraising concept. We know that virtually everybody has a collection of photos in their homes that represent important parts of their lives and are key to memories--photos taken prior to the digital camera age. Most are in boxes, or stored in albums and highlight some of the happiest moments and most important people in their lives.

Here is the problem. The photos are likely old and beginning to fade away. Some you can barely make out and others are not anywhere near the image quality they were when first printed. What's worse, many people put their photos in photo albums for organization or protection. What they don't realize is the chemical in the plastic of the albums will, in time, strip the photos contained in it of their color.

Take this a step further and realize that for a large percentage of people in the pre-digital age, many people in our precious photos can't be identified. Sadly, there may be no one left who can tell us who a person in the picture is.

The concern for someone's photos is capped off by the fact that they are susceptible to humidity (basement) damage, dryness (attic) damage, fire damage, water damage from leaking pipes or a flood and inadvertent loss. I wrote in this blog earlier in the year about someone who was re-doing their basement and thought a box of photos was part of the pile of trash that needed to go to the dumpster. That box was thrown out.

So...the reasons for scanning photos and slides are many.

On the fundraising side, the Scan Zone wants to participate. I'm a great believer in community and have been involved in philanthropy on many fronts for many years, including running the philanthropic arm of one of the largest companies in Rockland. Currently, I am the President of People to People, Rockland County's largest food pantry and have served on many other boards over the years.

Now the question is what can I do to help as many non-profits as I can. Any non-profit who does a Scan-a-thon will benefit from every donor who gets their photos done as part of the promotion. The Scan Zone will contribute 30% of any scanning project that's part of the promotion to the non-profit. With the most popular product being 1,000 photos scanned for $250, it can add up to a good amount of money for a charity.

If you wanted to do a Spring Scan-a-thon for a specific non-profit, here is how it might work:
• People could send their photos (via UPS or Fedex) to our office in Nyack, NY or from a central collection point if that is easier, we would do the scans, save and preserve on DVD, bill them and remit 30% of each payment to the non-profit.
• Or the non-profit could collect them in some other way, the Scan Zone would pick them up; we'd bill the organization the cost of the project less 30% and they could add on any value-added item and bill them on their own.

I believe a Scan-a-thon is effective because it allows an organization to touch its donors another time and by doing a project they were already thinking of doing--or even if they hadn't yet thought of doing it--they will be donating to your non-profit. What's better for them, the donation comes out of the Scan Zone side, not their side.

We use high speed scanners; we can color correct, organize them into folders, edit when necessary and output to DVD. The result will be that the improved image will be frozen in time and will last 50 years or more on the DVD-- with no degradation.

By some estimates, there are about 4 trillion paper prints and countless slides circulating around the world. If people had them scanned as part of Scan-a-thons, think about the money that could be raised for so many different kinds of important non-profits.

If you want to learn more about The Scan Zone, feel free to find us on Facebook or go to our website, which is www.thescanzone.com.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with more additional organizations for the benefit of all those helped by its fine work.

Using Photo Scanning to Fuel Support of Charities

There are a lot of things that are important these days. Obviously, we all have issues, concepts, organizations or activities that help shape the way we live our lives. When we become passionate about them, they spur us on to do more or accomplish more. That passion fuels our resolve and that resolve turns into performance---and hopefully, results.

There are many issues that do that for me, but two of those making the most noise in my personal ensemble are philanthropy and the restoration of our memories via scanning our photos.

One springs from the realization that there is so much need around us and to help meet that need, we, as individuals must get involved and help. Whether it’s a food pantry or a hospital, it is likely they wouldn’t be able to exist without the help of the community. That’s not politics, that’s just the reality of meeting need with limited resources. So we have to, in my humble opinion. jump in and help those organizations that we strongly support.

The other springs from the understanding that so much of our individual, personal histories exist via our photographs, slides and video that are fading further from view every day. Pictures fall victim to heat, humidity, chemicals in album plastic, misplacement, fire, flood or a host of other enemies. If we scan them, digitize them and preserve them onto DVD, they can last as they look today for 50 or more years. If we don’t, we run the risk of losing the significance of our images because we wont be able to identify the people nor will the photos be physically worth looking at.

My company, The Scan Zone, will address both issues together. We are unveiling The Scan Zone Scan-a-thon, which will work with non-profit organizations to create programs where donors get their photos scanned by The Scan Zone and about a third of the price of their scanning projects get donated to that non-profit.

It’s a big number to allocate to a non-profit and a pretty big number for the Scan Zone to absorb. But as I said, my two biggest passions right now are helping in the community to make people’s lives better and my desire to help people preserve their memories. The Scan Zone Scan-a-thon does both of those things for us and it is worth pushing the envelop on labor costs to scan, digitize, output to DVD and preserve memories while knowing important organizations that help people are receiving the financial benefit.

Don’t worry about us. There are lots of projects for the Scan Zone to make money outside the non-profit world. But to be able to have hit on a formula that preserves memories and financially benefits organizations that help people is truly a marriage of two passions.

Check out or face book page for more information and be sure to chec out our website at www.thescanzone.com.

Reasons for Scanning Go Far Beyond Preservation

There are real world reasons to have your photos scanned, digitized and protected. Many of those reasons are critical or emotional and can be necessary at a moment’s notice.

Up until now, we’ve dealt with reasons to scan your photos or transfer your videos that had a great deal to do with preserving the images themselves. You can’t have them in a basement—too humid. You can’t have them in an attic—too dry. You can’t even have them in photo albums—the polyvinyl chloride on the plastic is dangerous to your pictures, as it tends to suck up the colors. Add floods or fires to that mix and there is a very valid set of reasons to scan your photos and to do it soon.

Today, families are often scattered all over the country or even all over the world. By having your photos scanned, they can be uploaded to any number of commercial photo sharing sites for everyone to see. Whether it is a student far away, family members living in another state, relatives serving in the military or anyone in a location away from home, they can have access to those images that are meaningful to them.

Those photos can also be included in a montage, set to music and themed by an almost countless array of subjects. You can send people copies of a ready-for-television DVD or even upload it to YouTube.

But there are more reasons, some practical and some sad for having photos scanned. We are used to seeing wedding photos featuring happy, joyous people. But sometimes, those happy feelings don’t last and the marriage comes to an end. What happens to the photographs of themselves and their family? Often those photographs are the contentious subject of negotiations and wrangling. However, some couples just decide to have their photos scanned with each getting a copy of their photo collections. In fact, divorce ranks at or near the top of reasons why people have their photos scanned.

Certainly, the desire to use photos in a memorial service is a very real reason to scan them. It too, is one of the most often cited-reasons for scanning. It gives the family an opportunity to show images of their loved one in the kind of light they wish them to be seen in and remembered by. Similarly, people who have lost both parents want to share photos of their family with their siblings or other surviving relatives. Scanning, outputting on DVD and copying the DVD allow all family members to have their own copy of their parents’ collections.

We live in a culture where people are sharing images at an increasing and very rapid pace. But unless people have their photos scanned, they will not be able to share them online. Our Internet sharing capabilities may have taken off over the past decade, but our photographed history is more than a century old. By showing others your collection one at a time or in small groups, a small number of people in a small area can view your photos. By scanning them, digitizing them and sharing them online, you can show them to anyone who has a computer or a DVD player or even a phone for that matter.

Joe Allen

The Scan Zone