My mom gave me a project this year. Scan and save every Christmas picture we have dating back to 1989 (the year my oldest daughter was born). It was no small task scanning them in one by one, even with the help of a super cool tool my mom bought from QVC; the Kodak 8"x 10" Negative and Photograph Scanner
But then came the question of what to do with them once they were scanned. I lost an entire year's worth of pictures just a few months ago when the hard drive on my lap top failed. I have previously made cd copies of my pics. But the problem with that was in the last few years, programs have changed drastically and the Kodak program I had on the disks no longer works with Windows 7. I panicked for a minute, until I remembered that I could back in to the disks and retrieve the pictures. They aren't in their super neat, organized files anymore, but at least I have them.
Online backups are the answer for me. There are lots of sites where you can host photos for free. Photobucket.com and Flicker.com are just two. The free subscriptions limit the amount of files you can upload, but if you don't have 21 years worth of pics, they might work just fine for you. The subscription prices for unlimited hosting run about $20-30/year. But there was another option for me; Costco.com. Their photo hosting service offers unlimited space for free as long as you buy at least 1 print a year. Not a problem here. You do need a Costco Membership to have a photo account. The best part though,besides the unlimited space, is the savings on printing things out. I can print a 12 x12 photo album page for $2.99 and have it ready in one hour. Regular prints run 13 cents a piece.
If you don't have a Costco account, there is another site I have been hearing lots about called Scrapbookpictures.com . They also offer unlimited storage for as long as you want with just one purchase per year. Looking at their site, they also offer a really wide array of print sizes to match just about every scrapbook configuration you can think of.
Get in to the habit of uploading your photos on a regular basis. I recommend one evening a month while you are watching television. Knowing you have access to them if something happens to your computer is priceless.
Don't forget to stop by Kristen's at We Are THAT Family for a round up of the years best tips.
Online backups are the answer for me. There are lots of sites where you can host photos for free. Photobucket.com and Flicker.com are just two. The free subscriptions limit the amount of files you can upload, but if you don't have 21 years worth of pics, they might work just fine for you. The subscription prices for unlimited hosting run about $20-30/year. But there was another option for me; Costco.com. Their photo hosting service offers unlimited space for free as long as you buy at least 1 print a year. Not a problem here. You do need a Costco Membership to have a photo account. The best part though,besides the unlimited space, is the savings on printing things out. I can print a 12 x12 photo album page for $2.99 and have it ready in one hour. Regular prints run 13 cents a piece.
If you don't have a Costco account, there is another site I have been hearing lots about called Scrapbookpictures.com . They also offer unlimited storage for as long as you want with just one purchase per year. Looking at their site, they also offer a really wide array of print sizes to match just about every scrapbook configuration you can think of.
Get in to the habit of uploading your photos on a regular basis. I recommend one evening a month while you are watching television. Knowing you have access to them if something happens to your computer is priceless.
Don't forget to stop by Kristen's at We Are THAT Family for a round up of the years best tips.
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