20 years of digital

Did you know that your digital photo collection may go back 20 years? 2003 is the year that digital cameras surpassed film in sales. And even though I was working as a photographer and teaching photography at that time, I was shocked to realize it has already been 20 years since we made that transition from 24 frames on a roll of film to hundreds of jpegs files on our memory cards.

Do you remember which camera, computer or print service you used in the early days of digital? I had a Canon point and shoot that used CompactFlash memory cards, a Dell PC that could burn CDs and I used Snapfish for any online print orders.

Although I am proud that I am able to remember these random details from 20 years ago, the real point is that many of these items are all but obsolete. The CompactFlash memory cards, while still being manufactured, are not nearly as popular as SD cards. A cd or dvd player in a computer is no longer the standard. And my Snapfish account lapsed sometime around the time my son was born in 2010. The deadline for recovering photos from CDs and other old media formats closes in on us rapidly and before we know it we are scrambling to find a way to access these photos. If you don't have a working device to read a cd or old memory card, your photos are essentially "lost".

Not everyone has 20 years worth of digital photos, but every year of digital photography has the potential for thousands of files. My first step in any photo organizing project is to gather all digital files into one location so they can be sorted and backed up. If you have photos on CDs, old memory cards, old computers, phones, tablets or other devices, I can help you recover and save them in one place - using one device that is compatible with 2023.

Contact amy@recollectphotomanager.com for information on my digital photo organization service.