Why Midlife Is the Time to Digitize Your Print Photos

Please bear with me as I mount my Digitize Your Print Photos soapbox. I lost a friend from college last week and so this blog is part imparting advice, part therapy for me. We in midlife are currently navigating a few circumstances unique to our generation. First, we’ve reached the stage of life where we’re beginning to lose friends and peers (which suuuuuucks.) Second, we’re the last generation to have experienced printed photographs as the primary way to capture and preserve the memories from the first half of our lives.

My friend Billy was beloved. He was a connector of people and a beacon of positivity. When he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer at the end of November, it was a shock to the system of all of us who knew and loved him. All of the snapshots we took back in our college days suddenly became very important to a lot of people. Photos are my love language and I digitized most of my college prints years ago. I was so glad I had them at my fingertips as my college friends and I began to process what was happening. Here I’m sharing a few of the ways photos can come in really handy. And why now is a great time to digitize them.

A Photo A Day

When you digitize your print photos you can access them easily whenever you need them. After Billy’s diagnosis I began texting him a photo a day. Facial recognition allowed me to easily zero in on all of my pictures that had Billy in them. (Boy were there some doozies!) There were pictures from our dorm years, Greek formals, post-grad years and college reunions. It was fun to converse with him daily about whichever photo was the chosen one that day; sharing the good times we experienced together over the years.

Sharing memories is so easy to do in our modern world. Even though I was 3000 miles away from Billy we could use the pictures and texting to stay connected, even as he was mostly bed-ridden and not feeling well.

A Video Slide Show

If you digitize your print photos, they are instantly available when you are called on to contribute to a slide show or memory book. My friend Erica made a slide show to help process her feelings after Billy died. How wonderful it was to see others’ photos interspersed with my own in the video. There were pictures I hadn’t seen in years, and some I hadn’t ever seen! Erica gathered them from all of our friends and turned them into something beautiful that we could all enjoy.

A Digital Photo Frame

If you’ve followed along with my content for a while, you know I am a huge fan of Aura Digital frames. They are my favorite gift to give and I recommend them to all of my photo organizing clients. I’ve given them to all of my older-generation relatives who continue to share how much joy they get from seeing the photos of their lives play out on a daily basis.

But when Billy died, I thought – I need one of these frames for just myself. We already have one in the house that I loaded with all of our family photos from over the years and love it. But my husband has less interest in seeing all of my college photos. This frame will be in my office and it will be just for me; full of all the pictures of my college friends over the years. It will surprise and delight me whenever I look at it. And it will be easy to load up since I’ve already digitized the photos.

Are You Sold Yet?

Don’t wait for a forcing function like illness or death to force you to (stressfully) digitize your print photos. Do it now and enjoy the benefits. If you are unsure where to start, I have a free Photo Organizing Checklist to help guide you. There is also a photo scanner that I particularly recommend. It’s not cheap but your memories are worth the investment.

I have always believed that photos (and not physical belongings) are the best way to enjoy and honor our memories. The experience of losing my friend Billy reinforced that belief and inspired me to share it with all of my readers.

Rest well, dear friend!