Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

I hope I’m not highjacking the thread here, but your reply reminded me of when I was in 7th grade art class. We had an assigned project for the semester to create an oil painting the subject of which could be anything at all. I was totally lost on any ideas so to fill my class time I kept daubing paint on the canvas. That went on all semester long until the final class period in which I hurriedly put 3 small squares of various colors in the corner. Much to my surprise, the next week the teacher unvielled a display in the lobby showing off the class project and lo and behold, mine was front and center and I got an A+ on it. His comments were that it showed my deep passionate feelings. I’ve been a bit skeptical about art ever since.

Walt

Walt

Bill_de Loc: US

Thanks for that!

Dr.Nikon Loc: Honolulu Hawaii

Interesting to ponder ..., choose the best .. shit can the rest .., my idea has always been to passs on my shots and equipment to a deserving up and coming high school photo club deserving student who absolutely loves photography ...none of the grand kids show any interest ...I have a couple of great grand kids .., let’s see what they show interest in ,, as I have 40,000 shots to go through and more coming .. and as I save all of them on their original SD/CF cards $ and a 3 terabyte external and the cloud ... I’m covered ..
Basically .., your good works should inspire and set examples .., and your equipment donated gives a student who has no budget ... a great start to follow his passion .. and continue your legacy to the next generation ..

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

I believe that Photobooks are the best answer. Create one each year with that years best Photos. Twenty to forty photos. The books will be easier for children and grandchildren to look at, plus they only have your best, so it will keep them interested. Add a page that tell them the electronic file name and location.

Keep pictures of your family separate, they are all special,

tomad Loc: North Carolina

Pick your best shots and make them into photo books

srt101fan

I agree with most that a random collection of thousands of images on a drive will not be of interest or use to our families and friends. Neither will a big collection of printed pictures, especially if they are large. As others have said, we should take and keep pictures based on our enjoyment and not some "saving for posterity" illusion.

Having said that, I'm thinking more and more in terms of short slide shows. Putting together a themed (is that a word?) show with appropriate music, transitions, zooms, etc. is very enjoyable. It also forces you to be selective with your images. And you can enhance the show with video clips, if you have any, or scanned material that complements your theme.

I think it would be more likely for my kids and grandkids to view such slide shows than to search through and look at individual images in a large collection. But...! I am doing this first and foremost for myself. After that, it's like Doris Day sang: "Que sera, sera!"

Fellow member htbrown said it best: "....my only aim in photography is to please that inner spirit (and, if I should be so lucky, to please a few other people too)."

banjo-player

One thing to consider when storing your photos with the hope that someday, someone will want to look at them, is to put them into a slideshow. After I've traveled somewhere I create a slideshow that has music to coincide with the area/culture that I visited. Instead of giving out a DVD of individual shots for someone to "thumb" through, I upload the slideshow into Google. That way they can view it at their leisure and download it if they want. Most of the time they will display it on their flatscreen TV and the entire family can enjoy it. A slideshow makes it easier to view lots of photos.

thewags Loc: Phoenix

We had a similar thread last year. We put our hearts and souls into our photos, and folks constantly tell me they love my photos. But when we leave this earth, all our digital pics will likely leave with us. I still have boxes of photos from my grandmother and mother, photos of days gone by the I cherish.

One rule of thumb for me is "the fewer the better". One cigar box of photos will be much more valuable to future generations than a hard disk with 30,000.

I do two things to preserve my "best". I have a 13x19 printer. I print the "wow" photos and store them in binders. By the time I go, I expect to have maybe 4 such books each with 50 pics. Second, I agree with those who suggest books. Most of my photos are from my travels. I have started creating photo books with the highlights. I'm not talking about a book for each trip, but one book summarizing many trips. This involves selecting maybe 5 or 6 photos from 1500 for each trip. Not easy, but does follow the less is better philosophy. Again, I expect to create maybe 5-10 such books. I have also created a family history book which has been quite popular. It has the family trees with photos and stories and recipes from each branch.

Finally, I have about 30,000 photos fairly well organized on my hard disk. My kids won't care about most, but they may want to keep the disk because it has all the family pics as well.

Kuzano

Occasionally, I run a program from Auslogics called Duplicate File Finder. It's the best and most aggressive duplicate file finder I have come across over the years......

It uses a number of aspects of each file to find duplicates... not just file names.

Do that every so often, and you will find that the size of your photo archive will diminish considerably, and you won't have to worry about passing along such a large burden to your heirs. Then go through and cull another 50 to 75% and you'll pass on and leave a minimal problem for those who follow and already have rich, full lives.

I have to wonder about the quality of life of those people whose lives will be enhanced by the images they inherit from most photographers, if not all?

mtbear

I take a lot of family and group pictures. I create a key for each in Photoshop and include it with the CD in a folio for the group or family along with a copyright waiver. That way future generations can look at the pictures and know who is who and even print them if they like.

I've given my children access to my Lightroom which currently holds about 60% of my images, mostly tagged. I Store all my personal images on CDs which they will also get.

ToBoldlyGo Loc: London U.K.

I too like pigeon photos. While not a popular bird, they are no different to any other, and quite frankly, they have lovely markings.

(Download)

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

From 1982-2003, we lived in a city named Marion. I have a folder under "My Pictures" named "Marion" which contains a folders named "1982", "1983", ... "2003". I had an aunt named Julia, and our daughter Julia was born in 1987. Under the "1987" folder I have a picture named "two_Julias".

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

The only images of any real value to our future generations are the snapshots that chronicle our life events, those non-artistic images with images of us. We write on the back of prints and create photo books with plenty of space to hand write a description of each photo. These are likely the only images that our future family members will ever care about.

Since photography is my hobby, I want to learn and practice as much as possible because I enjoy it. I do create coffee table photo books to display some of those images, but it's mainly for me. I would love to create an image that could withstand the test of time on its own merit, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that one. However, as my skills improve, it does help me create better more interesting snapshots.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I don't know how future generations will respond, but our daughters express appreciation for, and share with their friends, the various "wildlife" scenes I share with them.
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-509556-1.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-461702-1.html

kmanske2

This is a good idea. I create photo books of our major vacations and/or family events - I find we tend to revisit these more frequently than looking at the digital images. I used to scrapbook - print and mount them using all kinds of special papers and decorative elements. Long since gave this up. I can create a photo book digitally and have it printed in a fraction of the time. These make great gifts.