I need help, I'm confuzzled

[BernardandMissBianca]

Ok, so I re-sorted all my pics into chronological order. And if you know me, you should know I don't do chronological. But, I have not been very productive in the page department as of late. I think I am overwhelmed by the amount of pics I have. There are so many pics that I have less than 20 of for that particular time frame, can you believe I only have about 15 pics for the entire year I lived in Hawaii?!?!? Sad but true.... But I have 1000's of pics over all, 1 1/2 creative memories power sort boxes to be exact!

Anyway, talk me down ladies and gents, tell me it's ok to have 6 pics for all of 1992 (when DH and I met (mind you it was Dec 4th)). Do I start with when DH and I met? Do I start when I was little?
Should I not scrap in order? If I don't then what? I'm chomping at the bit to do pages, I want and need to be creative but I also don't want to regret it when I'm done. I can't really do too many pages without some form of reasoning either.


Plus mom is sorting slides and such for me, did you read where I cursed my father for shooting for slides, OY! what a pain that is becoming. The slides are getting moldy so time is of the essence but I don't have the money to print 1000's of slides right now, so I'm working on prints only.

Oh and I almost tossed the ex-boyfriend pics today, but I'm not sure if I should. What do you think???

If you've stuck it out this far, I thank you!!

 

[fireplug]

Now that you have them sorted. SORT them again. Pick out the ones you REALLY want to make pages with and put the others aside. Since you have such a wide range of years,just pick a atrting point and do that year.. I have quite a few old pics in albums but I am just going to "scrap" the ones I really like and go from there.

As for the slides MAYBE you could find a scanner and scan them onto a DVD and then you could save them for a later date

Good Luck!



Squid

 

[New England Eeyore]

I agree with Squid. When I took all the photos from my Dad's house, I had grand intentions of scrapping EVERYTHING, but now I realize that's just not practical. I now plan to take a sampling of photos from my childhood, for example, and keeping the rest in regular photo albums or photo boxes. It doesn't mean I have to throw any pictures away, just have different "tiers" of pictures.

And I also agree - what on earth was the person who invented slides thinking? Could they be any more impractical? On my recent vacation with my Dad we talked a lot about vacations from when I was a kid and ones my parents took before I was born. I "remember" certain trips because I have photos of them but others are on slides that I haven't seen since the darn projector broke when I was like 11. I've got to get him to dig them out of his attic so I can see what I'm working with.

It IS okay to only have 6 pictures from 1992. I think I only have about 6 pictures total from 1997-2000! There will be a gap in my personal history for sure.

And I'd keep the ex-boyfriend pictures, but I can't bear to throw anything away.

 

[LindaBabe]

The opinionated old lady here.

I would toss the ex boyfriend, unless they're your prom photos, in which case, I would keep the best one and scrap it on a single page with your memories of the event.

Weed out your photo collection by tossing the junk - out of focus - generally 'bad' pictures, the worst of the 30 you have of a single event.

Don't lock yourself in to choronological scrapping. If you don't have energy around a set of photos it's going to be tough to scrap them and you'll not be able to move on.

We took slides because they were cheaper than prints. What I did was set up the projector and my digital camera on a tripod. I projected the photos on a white wall and took a snap with the digital. It's fast because the focal length never changes. Click. Snap. Click. Snap. Now, they're all on my computer. (DO NOT use a proper screen for this - use a flat white wall. The screen will make the photos come out 'funny'.)

You do NOT have to scrap every photo. Think about the stories you want to tell and pass on. Select the photo(s) and tell the story. Done.

Good Luck!

 

[Lisa]

I agree with LindaBabe. If the boyfriend was tossed out of your life, then toss out any of his pictures, unless of course, he is standing next to you in a picture of your prom dress, graduation, etc.

BAMB, where are you having slides made into pictures? Somewhere in this house (I fear, DH threw them out ) are promotional Disney slides taken when MK first open and I would love to have those made into prints.

 

[pjlla]

I feel your pain. I have all of the "family" slides from the mid 1950's to about the mid 1970's. DH and I have been working on scanning them, but it is a VERY slow process. Our scanner can hold 16 slides at once, but after the initial scan, you need to check to see if it scanned them all (it seems to skip them if they are too dark), then do the final scan (which is slow), then unload the 16 and reload another 16. The entire process takes about 20 minutes...And in an effort to be productive, I will walk away while it is scanning to do something else, and I end up forgetting that I am scanning... so it takes even longer! But that said, the quality of the scan is good and once they are done.... they are done FOREVER!! They will be on disc and I can pick and choose what to print. I will be giving a copy of the disc to my brother, my two cousins, and my aunts and uncles. THen they can print what they choose (since all of the extended family slides ended up batched together).

As far as what order to scrap in..... Scrap what you are "feeling". As you know, it is hard to scrap what you are not excited about! Since you are not a chronological gal anyway, I wouldn't "force" myself into that mold. But definitely find a method to "mark" what is already done.

FWIW, if I was storing lots of physical photos that weren't scrapped, I would rather have them in an album (probably a two-up album with a few bits of journaling, just in case of "memory failure"). They would be easier to sort through (IMHO) than in boxes.

I agree what most are saying about the ex-boyfriend. I would probably save a "token" photo (in my case it was my high school boyfriend's senior photo.... we never went to a prom together). He wrote a nice message to me on the back (this was after we had gone our separate ways) and it always made me feel good to know that he appreciated me! And I always thought that SOMEDAY my kids might be interested to know what he looked like! Good luck with your project............................P

 

[MazdaUK]

I've just kept old BF photos in old albums - I don't care if he fades The only one I have any residual affection for (as a friend - long story) is in my school reunion photos so that's plenty!

How about themeing thealbums - still keeping chronology. I did a "courtship" album for DH for valnentines (No, he wasn't particularly grateful ) from when we met to the Christmas before we got married. I have pictures after that, but it seemed a good point somehow (and the pics were nice )

I have 2 carrier-bags full of MIL's photos stuffed under the sideboards and NO idea where to start - there's no dates on the envelopes, photos from different hols all mixed together - and half the time she's got no idea what the photos are of. I need to go through and just pick out "face" photos (but then I'm owrried about throuwing out photos of old family homes )

Could you get the slides put on a CD so you could choose prints as you needed them? I had a set of negs put onto a CD so I could upload them to Snapfish to get extra copies - I'm not paying 25p each if I can get them online for 10p

 

[joyah]

Buffy
I too sorted chronolicgal and went OMG I'll never get this done.

I sat down and took out just 3 months time frame (since I have 2 sets of pictures and 2 boys it worked out easy for me) and put the rest away where I can't see them. I've started now pulling papers to go with the 1 month (dec 2001!!!!! ) At least this way It isn't staring me in the face.

As for the boyfriend pictures well he's part of the past he's in my section of my highschool yearbook (we broke up in March of my senior yr.) so I have a few around but DH and I starting dating in April so he's in all the prom pictures. The 2 of them know each other and Tom could care less about him. I think it is how you look at your past and if you want to explain the whole thing to your kids. My kids know the ex and they think it's hysterical that mommy had a boyfriend before daddy.
Hang in there we'll get through it a few months at a time

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I am looking into a slide scanner in the future, the purse strings are closed at the moment though. Dad just bought a new projector so I"m not worried about that, he likes to torture us with slide of the renovations of their current house. So I can look through the pics as needed. Thanks for the suggestion Linda about taking pics of the projections, I had never thought about that.

I do have huge personal gaps in my pictures because so many of them are on slides, out of sight out of mind I guess. Included in those are prom pics, a Disney trip, birthday parties etc.....
That is going to be my project for winter, writing down the slides I want printed and then CDing the rest.

I think this week I'm going to go through the pics I have again. Right now they are just sorted by year, so now I will go back and at least get them on order of season or topic and go from there.
I'd really like to do another Disney trip too, I guess I need to line those pics up to be printed as well.

As for Courtship type pics Mazda, we didn't really have a courtship. DH and I met Dec 4 1992 and married April 24, 1993. He was in the Navy and had orders to Hawaii so it was get married or walk away. I have a lot of photos, just not a lot of any one particular event besides Disney. That's why I thought I could do chronological, I probably have 2-4 layouts worth for each event.

I thin I'll bring my box to Lisa's this weekend! I can sort in peace! LOL

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I agree with LindaBabe. If the boyfriend was tossed out of your life, then toss out any of his pictures, unless of course, he is standing next to you in a picture of your prom dress, graduation, etc.

BAMB, where are you having slides made into pictures? Somewhere in this house (I fear, DH threw them out ) are promotional Disney slides taken when MK first open and I would love to have those made into prints.

Lisa I am probably going to talk to the people at Photo Connection of Colchester, they used to be Willimantic Camera and Video. He's a bit pricey but we had some photos restores for MIL and he did a fabulous job. I'll let you know what he says.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I have professional portraits of me when I was little, tons of them actually from each sitting. Should I use the originals or have copies made to use?

I will scan them onto CD first in case of an accident or something I'll have more copies but could I use the originals?

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Buffy
I too sorted chronolicgal and went OMG I'll never get this done.

I sat down and took out just 3 months time frame (since I have 2 sets of pictures and 2 boys it worked out easy for me) and put the rest away where I can't see them. I've started now pulling papers to go with the 1 month (dec 2001!!!!! ) At least this way It isn't staring me in the face.

As for the boyfriend pictures well he's part of the past he's in my section of my highschool yearbook (we broke up in March of my senior yr.) so I have a few around but DH and I starting dating in April so he's in all the prom pictures. The 2 of them know each other and Tom could care less about him. I think it is how you look at your past and if you want to explain the whole thing to your kids. My kids know the ex and they think it's hysterical that mommy had a boyfriend before daddy.
Hang in there we'll get through it a few months at a time

I almost started pulling papers last night but the kids were around so it wasn't possible to spread out.
I think I'll go pull stuff for the 1992 pics, they are only from New Years Eve so that should be easy to do! LOL And I'll need to find embellishments too, which is easy, I have enough stuff to open my own store! LOL

 

[joyah]

I'll come shop at your house then. Mom's stuck in Quincy with all my new stuff (nana had another stroke and other issues) I have one more quilt class tomorrow night and after that I'm tackling the piles that I've pulled waiting for the iron to warm up. I keep reminding myself that I didn't learn to run I had to walk first.... baby steps and I'll get there.
Soon it will be winter and husband will be grooming snowmobile trails everynight and I will have more time i hope anyway.

 

[calanniebu]

I have no words of advice but I wanted to at least chime in for moral support! :-D

 

[MazdaUK]

Do not crop original pics if they are vintage Either mount with a frame over to hide and space, or else put them in a photo mounting sleeve so there is no adhesive touching them if you are worried.

 

[Faerie]

My professional photos of my as a child are all from 79 on (I was born in March of 79) and I just put them in my album.

I need to get all the photos my grandmother had and spend a weekend with Papa to talk family heritage and who is in the photos. If only flights would go down. I'm spoiled, I won't spend more than $200 to fly to either Providence or Boston for a weekend.

I know that Grandma spent a small fortune getting slides made into prints a year or two ago. I was told she ID'd all those when she got them back. There still a lot of slides from trips she and Papa took (Grandma owned a travel agency for 35 years and they did a lot of traveling) that I need to deal with as well as old old pictures (from when Grandma was a baby in the early 30's)

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'll come shop at your house then. Mom's stuck in Quincy with all my new stuff (nana had another stroke and other issues) I have one more quilt class tomorrow night and after that I'm tackling the piles that I've pulled waiting for the iron to warm up. I keep reminding myself that I didn't learn to run I had to walk first.... baby steps and I'll get there.
Soon it will be winter and husband will be grooming snowmobile trails everynight and I will have more time i hope anyway.

Hugs to Nana, I hope she gets better!!

As soon as DH gets back out on the road, I'll be all set. He gets in my way sometimes. He took 2 weeks of at Xmas so his job is to gut the dining room, I'm taking that space over for a craft room. I'm tired of not having space to work, we have a big table in the living room but we eat there too so I have to constantly clean up mid project. If I can spread out I might get more done!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I have no words of advice but I wanted to at least chime in for moral support! :-D

Thank you!!!

Do not crop original pics if they are vintage Either mount with a frame over to hide and space, or else put them in a photo mounting sleeve so there is no adhesive touching them if you are worried.

Vintage?!? I'm old but I'm not that old! I'll probably use clear photo corners for those pics but seriously I have like 30 of the same picture. Mom always bought the biggest package there was and gave out the pics. As people have passed away, most of those pics have come back to the original owner.

 

[Queenie]

As people have passed away, most of those pics have come back to the original owner.

I know that feeling, I have about 10 of each of my school photos. Sadly my high school didn't do portraits or class photos so I have no formal pics of me after age 11 when I finished primary (elementary) school. Plus I never went to prom as I changed schools halfway through my final school year. Woe is me!

I'm still scanning all our old family photos and it's sending me crazy now. My mum literally has an entire wardrobe filled with boxes of photos and slides going back to the late 1800s. I now have thousands of them stored on my computer (and backed up externally) and no idea how to get them organised. Right now they are just by the people in the pics but I think I need to go chronological as it's getting way out of hand. Luckily mum was so desperate not to have to do the scanning herself that she bought me a new scanner with an attachment for doing slides.

As for actually scrapping any of this lot, all I can say is There just aint enough hours in the day!

 

[Lisa]

PD for Nana, Joyah.

Faerie, the next time you come to Providence or Boston, you need to let BAMB, LoganandTylersMom, and I know so we can try to get together.