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Downsizing Solutions: From a Room Full of Photo Albums to a Palm Size Hard Drive




My Client Ronda Came to Me with a Problem.


Ronda was planning to move from her suburban home into a smaller apartment in Manhattan. Ronda is an avid photographer. She documented every vacation and took thousands of non digital pictures of her three sons growing up.


Ronda had spent countless hours creating traditional albums with detailed captions. To be specific, she had 43 large albums proudly displayed in chronological order in her den. She also had over a dozen albums from her parents and grandparents, some with fragile historic pictures from the 1800s and early 1900s, plus boxes of pictures not in albums.


Ronda knew there would not be room to display the albums after moving, and that if they were in storage they would never be enjoyed. She was also motivated to digitize the prints to protect her priceless collection from possible loss or disaster.



“I did a lot of research about scanning options before deciding to work with Karen. She wasn’t the least expensive, but her personal touch and attention to detail convinced me she was worth it!”


Here’s How We Worked Together


Ronda’s goal was to digitize each album, in order, complete with captions, but wanted the photos returned to the albums in the same order. Each photo, along with any captions and descriptives on the photo backs, was scanned at 600dpi and named according to the name and date of the album. Dates were changed to reflect the approximate date each picture was taken. Otherwise the computer would think a picture taken in 1995 but scanned in 2018 was taken in 2018.


As each batch of photos was completed I uploaded them to Drop Box to share with Ronda. Ronda and I met about once a month throughout 2018. We exchanged pictures and I updated her on progress.


After we finished the 43 family albums in her den we moved on to her heritage and childhood albums, many of which needed to be scanned on an oversized flatbed scanner so the album and photos would not be damaged. The final leg of the project was two boxes of loose pictures from her sons and all of of their sport, camp and school pictures. Ronda is one of the most meticulous people I have met. For example each class picture of her sons included the names of every classmate written on the back, and now it’s all documented! If I could hire Ronda to help me with photo organizing I would!



This is the Result


Ronda’s project is complete with a month to spare before the move! Ronda’ entire digital collection consists of 14,711 images in 76 folders. Her digital collection is safe with redundant copies on:

  • Ronda’s mac computer

  • An external hard drive

  • Amazon Prime or Google Photos. I explained the pros and cons of each program and Ronda is deciding which to use

  • Drop Box

  • Backblaze


’I'm thrilled I can be anywhere and with a few clicks I can access any picture I can think of! I have peace of mind knowing my memories are safe, and my kids are relieved they don’t have to worry about what to do with my albums.”





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