Pro Tips to Save Your Irreplaceable Digital and Print Photos

Photos hold incredible personal value. They capture special memories in a snapshot, which is why we often consider them irreplaceable. And yet many of us are guilty of leaving those irreplaceable photos to discolour and disintegrate in shoe boxes, or to be forgotten on unstable old hard drives. We’re reminding and educating people to keep photos safe from accidental loss or damage—and to appreciate the photos you have in your possession!

Here are a few ways to save both your print and digital photos, and ensure your irreplaceable memories will remain a part of your family for years to come.

Saving your print photos

We love print photos. There’s something about seeing your photos on display that truly brings them to life. But it’s important to understand your prints can be susceptible to damage and degradation, and that certain steps should be taken to ensure your photos remain safe in the long term.

Carefully remove photos from album

If you have photos in old, magnetic stick albums, those photos have very likely begun to degrade due to the acidic paperboard used. The best course of action is to preserve the layout of the photos (taking a picture of each page for reference works), and then remove the photos one-by-one. Start by removing the photo at the corners, and use a microspatula blade or dental floss to free the photo from the sticky page.

Make digital copies of each print

Once you’re done removing the individual photos, you can protect those precious images from further degradation by making digital copies. To digitize the old photographs, you can use an at-home scanner, or to save time, our Photo Scanning Box Service can help do large batch scanning. Pick up a box at your local London Drugs Photolab, fill it with up to 800 photographs and documents (up to 8.5”x11” in size), and bring it back to us in-store, where we’ll digitize everything for you. Then pick up your originals as well as the digital files on a USB drive!

Beyond just protecting your photos from general degradation over time, digitizing your photos now could also save you down the road, if your original prints are ever destroyed due to unforeseen accidents or disasters like flood or fire.

Upgrade to photo books

In future, instead of magnetic stick albums, we recommend either using standard sleeve photo albums, or photo books. Upgrading to our personalized photo books is ideal as you can easily re-order copies through our Photolab in case of accidental damage, and you can also send additional copies to family and friends. Photo books also make it easier to document dates, places, and people in your photos, all thanks to our customizable tools which allow you to add themes and text to each page.

Saving your digital photos

One of the most important aspects of saving your digital photos is organization. Often, people get in the bad habit of dumping their photos from the smartphones and cameras onto their computer, without really thinking much about how their photos should be organized. You end up with photos scattered all over your computer, with no real way of finding specific photos. Or if you have photos scattered over various devices, it can also be hard to keep track of which photos are stored where if you don’t have an organizational system in place. That’s how photos inevitably end up going missing.

Organize files into folders

First, pick a device that you’re going to save all of your photos to. This could be your desktop, laptop, or hard drive—somewhere you have room to store all of these photos in one place. Having all your photos on one device will make it easier to sort through everything at once.

Then, the easiest way to start organizing your digital images is with folders. Decide how you want to divide them up. For example, you could organize based on season (ex. Summer 2018), simply based on year (ex. 1963), or by month (ex. February 2018). It all depends on how often you take photos. Within those folders, you can divide your photos up even more if you have specific activities photographed (ex. Trip to Mexico, Grandma’s 80^th Birthday).

Rename image files and remove duplicates

Now it’s time to start cleaning up your image files. You can leave your file names as-is, or rename them to better describe each image. While you’re going through, this is also the time to delete any duplicate photos you find. You might realize you accidentally downloaded your Mexico photos twice, or that you have four photos of the exact same thing, and can just pick a favourite of the four to keep.

Add metadata to your photos

With old print photos, people often wrote on the back of images to indicate dates, locations, and people in the photo. But what about digital? Do you have to just rely on your memory? No need! That’s what metadata is for. Thankfully, your camera or smartphone likely automatically captures some metadata already, such as the date and time your photo was taken (as long as you have the time zone set correctly!).

If you’ve digitized old print photos though, you’ll need to add this information yourself. Just right click on the photo file to access its Properties, and you can edit the metadata under ‘Details’, as shown below. Add a title, details of who’s in the photos, date, etc.

Backing up your saved photos

The other essential aspect of saving your photos is backing them up. Ideally, you should be backing up your images on at least two other devices to ensure if one fails, your photos are still safe. Hard drives, flash drives, and cloud storage are all viable options. Just make sure you’re not keeping them all in the same space, in case of a disaster like fire or flood.

If you’ve been dumping your photos onto a hard drive and haven’t taken a look in a few years, it’s very possible the drive has failed and corrupted the files. Moral of the story? Replace hard drives every few years to ensure your photos are not lost forever.

Enjoy your saved photos

Once your photos are safe and sound, thanks to the measures outlined above, you can now enjoy them! If you’re planning on printing photo books, it will now be easy to organize photos into separate books based on your folder organization. And if you’re planning on ordering prints, enlargements or creative photo products like calendars, water bottles and greeting cards, you’ll now easily be able to search out the photos you’re looking for and pick some favourites to feature. And you’ll have that handy metadata to help you personalize your photo products with text!

Best of all, you can rest assured that your precious images are protected digitally, so you can enjoy your photos in the present, and your family will be able to enjoy them in the future.

Our Photolab Experts are ready to help. If you need some direction on how to use our Photo Scanning Box, or some tips on how to create a photo book or other creative photo product, just visit us at your local London Drugs and we can walk you through it.

Happy Save Your Photos Day!

Father’s Day Gift Ideas: Take Dad Down Memory Lane

Dads are notoriously tough to buy gifts for. Something about them having everything they need already? So this Father’s Day, why not surprise dad with the gift of memories – something we’re sure he’ll be happy to receive. Give him the gift of memories of his childhood, memories of his first years as a father, memories of his worldly travels…whatever you think will resonate best with your dad! Here, our Photolab Experts will show you how to compile your own Father’s Day gift using throwback photos of dad.

Dust Off the Shoeboxes & Photo Albums

First, you’ll need to find some old photos of dad to work with. That means digging through old photo albums and dusty shoeboxes full of old photos to find some treasures. If they’re not in plain sight, you may need to check the basement, attic or storage unit. Be very careful when handling the old photographs you find. After being exposed to light, dust, heat and other elements over the decades, they are likely to be quite fragile.

Dad thought all evidence of that bowl cut was gone…little does he know it was just buried in a shoebox, waiting to be uncovered! You know it’ll give him (and everyone else) a good laugh.

Give Damaged Photos some TLC

If you come across some great oldies while sorting through the shoeboxes of photographs, but they’re a bit worse for wear, we may be able to help. Our Photolab offers digital restoration services to help restore your photos to their former glory. Simply bring the photos into the Photolab and our LDExperts can digitally edit each individual image to bring back a little colour worn by dust and heat, fill in scratches, or restore parts of an image that was destroyed by water damage. You’d be amazed at what we’re able to restore!

Digitize Dad’s Old Photographs

Once you’ve picked some real gems of dad ‘back in the day’, you’ll want to digitize those original photographs so that you can turn them into a unique Father’s Day gift. You can do this yourself with an at-home scanner, but if you’re looking to digitize a large selection of photos (it’s hard to choose, we know!), we recommend using our Photo Scanning Box service.

Just pick up a free box in-store and fill it with up to 800 photos (and other precious documents). Then return the box to your local London Drugs Photolab and we’ll digitize your photos for only $179.99. Once finished, your photos will be returned to you, along with all the digital files on a USB drive.

We also offer a Slide Scanning Box service, if you dug up some great slides of dad and want to get those digitized too.

You might even consider digitizing all of dad’s old photos and slides a Father’s Day gift, while you’re at it! After all, those are precious memories worth protecting in the form of digital files. He’ll thank you later, if anything ever happens to the originals!

Create Your Father’s Day Throwback Gift

Now that you have all the digital files of dad’s photos at your fingertips, you can get creative with how you want to gift them! One of our favourite ways to showcase photos as a gift, especially if you have quite a few, is with a photo book. Our high quality photo paper and exceptional inks will give the images new life – and you know dad will love flipping through them all and reminiscing. Our photo collages are another great way to showcase a whole selection of your dad’s best snapshots from over the years. Both our photo books and collages also have themed Father’s Day templates!

We also have lots of unique keepsakes that we can customize with your chosen throwback photo of dad. Add his ‘mug’ to a Father’s Day themed mug, or put an image of him on a photo box.

Then, finish off your gift with a thoughtful, personalized card which you can also add your own photo to and customize with text. We have Father’s Day templates for those too.

Happy Father’s Day!

5 Services You Might Not Know our Photolab Offers

It probably isn’t surprising to know our Photolab can print photos. After all, we’ve been printing your photos (or your parents’ or your grandparents’) for over 35 years. But with the help of our skilled Photolab technicians, we can do a whole lot more than that. (Please verify turnaround times by calling your local Photolab)

From film processing and scanning, to digital restoration and image inspection, here are 5 services you may not know our Photolab offers:

1. C41 film processing at all locations

If you’ve been shooting on film for a long time now, you’ll have noticed it’s gotten harder and harder to find a photolab to process your film. Many labs no longer offer this service due to the increasing popularity of digital photography. But we wholeheartedly believe that film photography still has a place alongside digital. That’s why we offer C41 film processing at all of our London Drugs Photolab locations, which includes 35mm, 110, 126 and APS. Slide film photographers, don’t worry, we have you covered too. We also offer quality E-6 slide film processing. So bring in your slide film, C41 film, pinhole and disposable cameras, and we’ll help process them all for you!

Of course, we won’t just process your film. We’ll print it too. Choose from glossy or pearl print surfaces, both of which are printed using patented inks and the highest-resolution printing in the industry, resulting in excellent definition in your images and rich colour, no matter the type of film source.

Often, we can process your film in just one hour. For exact turnaround times, contact your local London Drugs Photolab.

2. Film negative and slide scanning

Beyond processing your film and slides, we can also digitize your film for extra peace of mind. We can scan your film negatives and slides, putting them onto a CD, DVD or USB drive for you.

Once the film is digitized, your files can also be uploaded to a London Drugs Photolab account, so that you can print everything from enlargements to creative products using your photos.

3. Image Inspection

Every time you order prints from our Photolab, our dedicated technicians inspect every image and correct as needed. This can include lightening, darkening and even correcting for colour shift. You can rest easy when you bring your photos to us: we guarantee satisfaction on every print.

4. Photo Scanning Box Service

Our newest service makes the process of digitizing your old photos and documents infinitely easier and faster. Order one of our Photo Scanning Boxes, pick it up in-store, and take it home to fill it with up to 800 documents and photos (up to 8.5”x11” in size). Then just bring it back to us in-store, where we’ll digitize everything for you. Once we’re done, all you have to do is pick up your original photos, along with the USB drive we’ve put the digital copies on!

We recommend using this service to preserve your personal photos and documents, to help avoid degradation as well as damage due to accident or disaster.

5. Digital Restoration

If precious photos of yours have been damaged, either due to the passage of time, or because of a flood, fire or other disaster, we may be able to help restore them to their former glory. Our Photolab technicians can digitally edit each individual image to bring back a little colour worn by dust and heat, fill in scratches, or restore parts of an image destroyed by mud and water damage. You’d be amazed at what we’re able to restore!

Once we’ve digitally restored your image, consider making duplicate digital and print copies so that you can avoid damage or loss in the future.

Curious to learn more about one of the services we’ve shared above? Pop into your local London Drugs Photolab and chat with a technician about how we can help with your photos!

Contest: Show London Drugs Your Old Photos for a Chance to Win

Do you have funny, heartfelt, or age-old photos? Share them with London Drugs and the Photolab! In celebration of Save Your Photos Day on September 29^th, we want to help you preserve your most treasured photographs.

Degradation over time or even an unforeseen disaster could cause your irreplaceable photos to be lost forever. By taking measures to properly save your photos, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing they are well protected. To help get you started, here’s everything you need to save your photos.

Photo Scanning Box Service

Our Photo Scanning Box Service, so you can have up to 800 photos and documents (up to 8.5”x11” in size) digitized in a flash! How the service works: pick up the box from your local London Drugs Photolab, fill it up with your photos and documents, and then bring it back to us in-store, where we’ll digitize everything for you. Once we’re done, you just pick up your original photos as well as a USB drive with the digital copies.

Portable storage and flash drive

One WD 1TB My Passport Portable Storage, and one Transcend V790 128GB Flash Drive to properly back up your photos. (Our LDExperts recommend you keep the hard drives in separate locations, so that in case of an accident or disaster such as fire or flood, one hard drive will still have your precious photos saved).

London Drugs gift card

A $100 London Drugs gift card to print your favourite photos, so you can fully enjoy them on display, knowing they’re all safely backed up!

To enter for a chance to win our Save Your Photos Day Package, valued at approx. $400:

Follow @LDPhotolab on Instagram or Twitter
Comment on one of our Save Your Photos Day Contest posts, and tell us why your photos need saving.
Get a bonus entry by sharing a pic of your old/special photos with the hashtag #savemyphotosLD

Contest starts September 7, 2018 and ends at 11:59PM PST on September 29, 2018.

Contest rules and regulations:

To enter this @LDPhotolab Save Your Photos Instagram & Twitter contest:
Step 1. Follow @LDPhotolab on Instagram or Twitter
Step 2. Comment on one of our Save Your Photos Day Contest posts, and tell us why your photos need saving.
Step 3. Get a bonus entry by sharing a pic of your old/special photos with the hashtag #savemyphotosLD
Contest is open to all residents of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba who, as of the date the prize draw is made: (i) have not won a London Drugs contest since September 7, 2017; (ii) have reached the age of majority in the province in which they reside as of September 7, 2018; (iii) are not employees of London Drugs, their respective advertising and promotional agencies, the independent judging organization (if any), or any family member living with any such employee.
No purchase necessary. Limit one entry per person per social network per contest, plus one bonus entry per person per social network per contest. Entries must be received no later than 11:59 PM Pacific Time on September 29^th, 2018. London Drugs is not responsible for entries that become lost or misdirected. All entries become the property of London Drugs Limited and will not be returned.
The winners will be randomly chosen on the day the contest ends (see dates below) in Vancouver, British Columbia, from all eligible entries received per contest. To win, selected entrants must correctly answer a skill-testing mathematical question and must sign London Drug’s declaration and release confirming compliance with the contest rules and acceptance of the prize(s) as awarded, releasing London Drugs from liability in association with the contest and prize and consenting to the use of their name, photograph, voice and statements for promotional and publicity purposes.
There will be one (1) prize awarded to one winner: one (1) Photo Scanning Box, one (1) WD 1TB My Passport USB 3.0 Portable Storage, one (1) Transcend V790 USB 3.0 128GB Flash Drive, and a $100 London Drugs gift card, with a total package retail value of approximately $400. See details and contest dates below. Prize must be accepted as awarded, are non-transferable and no substitutions are permitted. Prize will be awarded at the closest London Drugs location to contest winner.
Contest dates – Monday, September 7, 2018 12:01AM to Saturday, September 29, 2018 11:59PM Pacific Time
Draw date – 12:00PM Pacific Time Monday, October 1, 2018
Only one prize may be won by any one person and household. In the event that any selected entrant incorrectly answers the skill-testing question or is otherwise unwilling or unable to comply in full with these rules, a new entry will be drawn.
Selected winner will be contacted by email or on the social network they were drawn from. No correspondence will be entered into except with selected entrants. If the winner does not respond then she/he will be notified for the second time, 3 (three) days after the first notification. If the winner still does not respond within 3 days of the second notification, a new winner will be chosen in the same manner until a winner is successfully contacted.
The chances of winning a prize will depend on the number of eligible entries received. Decisions of the judges in respect of all aspects of this contest including, but not limited to, eligibility of entries and correctness of answers given to the skill-testing question, are final.
London Drugs and their respective advertising and promotional agencies, the independent judging organization, and their respective agents are not liable to an entrant in any manner relating to the contest or the awarding and use of the prize(s).
This contest is subject to all federal, provincial, and municipal laws and regulations. By entering the entrant consents to the collection of all personal information included on their entry and agrees to the use and disclosure of such information by and between London Drugs, an independent judging organization and their agents. The winner(s) also agrees to the collection, use and disclosure of their name, entry, photographs, voice and statements for London Drugs’ publicity purposes without further compensation. All personal information collected from entrants will be used only for the purposes of administering the contest and for marketing and promotional purposes as contemplated by these rules; under no circumstances will any personal information be sold or rented to third parties. All personal information collected by London Drugs will be kept in accordance with the privacy policy of London Drugs, which can be viewed at www.londondrugs.com, and in accordance with all applicable privacy laws.
The right is reserved by London Drugs to terminate this contest, in whole or in part, and/or modify, amend or suspend the contest, and/or these rules in any way, should any cause beyond the reasonable control of London Drugs or its agents affect the proper administration thereof.

World Photo Day: Celebrate Your Family’s Legacy Through Photos

World Photo Day falls on August 19^th this year, and it is an opportunity for us to celebrate the incredible power of photography. Working in the London Drugs Photolab, our LDExperts are able to see the impact of photography first-hand, as they help bring cherished moments to life through photos.

It’s pretty special that our photos have the power to bring back memories, transport us to places we’ve never been, and make us smile—or even shed a tear.

Another way we can use photography is for visual storytelling. One of the most important stories you can tell is your family legacy. In honour of World Photo Day, our LDExperts will show you how to use photography as a storytelling tool for crafting your family’s legacy. We’ve compiled some tips below to walk you through the process of gathering your photos and preserving your family’s story for future generations.

Gather information and photos ASAP!

There’s no better time than World Photo Day to finally get started on documenting your family legacy. The idea of chronicling your family history may seem overwhelming—it can be a massive undertaking, with thousands of old photos to dig through and hundreds of distant family members to connect. But it’s worth it to be able to pass down your legacy to the next generation, who can then one day pass it down to their children.

It’s especially helpful to gather photos and documents while grandparents and great-grandparents are still alive, as they can help you find what you need and explain the photos and documents they have in their possession. Being able to add details of personal stories will help to enhance your photos.

Contact family relatives and ask if they are interested in contributing photos, documents, and stories. If they can share specifics about each photo, even better! You may find details written on the backs of photos as well, which helps pinpoint people and dates. If you’re adding info to the photo yourself, make sure to use a Standard #2 graphite pencil only.

When collecting items and information from your family, consider asking for photos and documents relating to:

Births
Deaths
Marriages
Military service
Family portraits
Schools and jobs
Pets
Achievements (graduation, sports, etc.)
Other special and historic family moments

If you dig up an old photograph, but there’s been some damage (scratches, water damage), we may be able to help restore it. Speak with one of our Photolab Experts to see if we can digitally restore the image for you.

Of course, don’t forget to include current photos from your life as well! You may want to pull from photo albums, computers, cameras, as well as online sites like Facebook or Instagram.

Organize your family photos and documents

Once you have everything you need to get started, it’s time to organize all those scattered photos, documents, and stories from the various family members. If you’re working with both digital and physical items, you’ll need to organize both separately, but try to keep your organization methods the same.

Here are some ways to consider organizing your photos:

By generation (great-grandparents, grandparents)
By period of time (the 60’s, or 1940-1960)
By individuals (mother, father, self)
By family (ex. ‘The Johnsons’, ‘The Macdonalds’)

It helps to separate your photos and documents into boxes or large envelopes as you pick where each one should go. Once you’re done organizing everything, it’s time to go through once more and decide which ones you’ll actually want to feature when you begin crafting your family’s story.

Digitize your photos with the Photo Scanning Box

Now that you’ve organized what you have, it’s time to digitize any old photographs and documents. You can either do this at home, using a scanner, or use our Photo Scanning Box service. To use our Photo Scanning Box, just pick one up at your local London Drugs Photolab, fill it with up to 800 photographs and documents (up to 8.5”x11” in size), and bring it back to us in-store, where we’ll digitize everything for you. Then pick up your originals as well as the digital files on a USB drive!

What sort of files might you want to digitize? Think old black and white photographs, photo prints, birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc. Digitizing these items will not only give you the freedom to work with them digitally, but will also ensure those valuable memories are preserved, in case something were to happen to the originals.

Put on your storytelling hat

Once you have all of your family’s history in digital form, you can start to craft the story of your family’s legacy! It’s all about telling the story of where your family has been and what they have done in their lifetime.

Our Photolab offers a variety of different photo book designs that are perfect for showcasing your family’s story. Our Photographic Albums and Coffeetable Photo Books are both great options, and are printed on high quality surfaces that your family will be able to enjoy for years to come.

You may want to create multiple photo books to organize your photos as you did earlier. You can choose to create a photo book for each part of your family (ex. ‘The Johnsons’, ‘The Macdonalds’), or for each generation (ex. the great-grandparents, the grandparents), or by time period (ex. the 60’s or 1940-1960). Once you’ve chosen the photos and documents you want to feature in your photo book, you can also add text to identify people, places and dates…or even personal family stories.

Share your family’s legacy… with your family!

The best part about having all of your photos digitized, is that you can easily share copies with all of your family! No need to split up valuable old photographs between family members anymore. Once you’ve created your family legacy photo book(s) on our Photolab website (or in-store at our kiosks), you’ll be able to order as many copies as you like. Send them directly to anywhere in Canada, or pick them up in-store and hand out to them in person.

Don’t forget: your legacy isn’t over! Continue to collect important photos and documents in the years to come. You can always add more photo books to your family legacy collection as life goes on. Your family is sure to be grateful that you’ve preserved their legacy and brought their memories to life!

Need a little help creating your family legacy photobook? Our Photolab Experts are ready to support—just visit us at your local London Drugs. Or you can get started right away by uploading your photos to our Photolab website, our London Drugs Photolab App for iOS and Android, or to our in-store Photolab kiosks.

Are Your Photos at Risk? Protecting Your Photos from Damage

You never think it’ll happen to you, until it does. You’ve come home to a flooded basement, or have been victim to a fire, and now realize many of your possessions are damaged or destroyed. The material things are easy to replace, but your photographs are one-of-a-kind. What do you do?

Digital Restoration

Our London Drugs Photolab experts can help bring your damaged photos back to their former glory with our digital restoration service. If you’ve experienced a devastating event in your home, or your photographs just haven’t stood the test of time, let our LDExperts work their magic.

They can digitally edit each individual image to bring back a little colour worn by dust and heat, fill in scratches, or restore parts of the image destroyed by mud and water damage. You’d be amazed what can be restored. Our LDExperts just ask that before bringing in photos with mud and water damage, that you wait until the mud dries, and then very gently brush off the mud as best possible.

Once these photos have been digitized during our restoration process, we recommend not only making a print copy of your restored photo, but ensuring you have the digital file backed up safely as well – to avoid any damage or loss in future.

Be Proactive and Protect Your Photos

Before the worst, plan with the best. Our Photolab makes it easy to keep everything from your baby photos to your wedding photos safe and sound, ensuring the longevity of all those moments preserved by a single snapshot.

The first step to protecting your photos from potential loss or damage is to create digital copies of all print photos. This can be a tedious process, which is why many put off doing it, but we can take care of that. Just pick up a Photo Scanning Box at any London Drugs Photolab location, fill it with up to 800 photographs and documents (up to 8.5”x11”), and bring it back to our Photolab. We’ll do the legwork of digitizing all those photos for you, then we’ll return to you the original photos and a USB drive with all of the digital files.

We recommend safeguarding your digitized photos on at least one other USB or Hard Drive, kept in different locations. Then you can sit back with peace of mind knowing you’ll have a secondary digital backup if one of the hard drives or USBs is damaged or lost.

To protect those original prints, consider relocating them to a safer place in your home. For example, if you live in an area that is susceptible to flooding, consider moving your stash of photos from the basement to an upstairs room. Meanwhile if your area is more susceptible to wildfires, you could protect your most precious photos by keeping them in a fire-resistant safe in the basement.

Have questions about how we can help protect your most important memories? Just speak with any of our LDExperts in the Photolab! Or learn more about our Photo Scanning Box service here.

Spring Cleaning Tips for Organizing and Storing Your Photos

March brings the sun, the greenery, and of course the allergies! It reminds us to dust off some of that hibernation clutter that has collected over the last few months. Tis’ the season for spring cleaning!

It starts with the dreaded junk drawer and ends with moving around the furniture, but somewhere in between, you’ll find that ever-growing collection of family portraits and candids in boxes or old photo albums, and like the bedroom Feng Shui, they could probably use a little TLC.

Spring cleaning, organizing and maintaining your treasured snapshots is as easy as pie—with only a few steps to a lifetime of crisp (and easy to find) images.

Back-up and Digitize

The easiest way of ensuring your photos really last, is by simply scanning and backing them up to a disk, hard-drive or USB. The Seagate 1.5TB Expansion Portable Hard Drive is a great option; it has drag and drop file saving right out of the box, and lots of room to store your photos. Running the risk of your memories cracking or becoming discoloured becomes virtually impossible- and clutter free!

Make this process even more efficient with our Photo Scanning Box – preserving childhood memories or historic family images has never been easier. Fill the FREE photo box (found in-store or online) with up to 800 photos or documents, return the box to a London Drugs Photolab, prepay and our LDExperts will do the rest. They’ll digitize your keepsakes at high resolution, then return the hard copies to you, along with a USB drive full of all those photos you hold dear.

Once you have those digital copies, you’ll want to make sure they’re backed up safely. To avoid losing all your precious photos due to a fire or flood, power surge or hard drive failure, it’s best to use the 3-2-1 back up rule.

This means that you should have:

3 copies of your digital photos
Stored on 2 different media or devices
With 1 copy located off-site.

For example, you could store your photos on two hard drives and on the cloud (a service like iCloud), and take one of those hard drives and store it at your parents’ home. That way, even in the worst case scenario that one or even two of your storage methods fail, you’ll still have a failsafe copy.

Organize and Store Safely

Of course, after making digital copies, you’ll need somewhere to store the originals – it’s important to take necessary precautions in order to avoid misplacement or damage, and it helps to keep them organized.

Suggested items before beginning any photo organizing project include:

Cotton gloves: Oily residue naturally found on your fingertips can lead to deteriorating your photos. Avoid this by handling documents with a pair of gloves.
Soft lead pencil: Including the date, year, or name on the back of a photo is a must when organizing your photos, because you’re not always going to remember if you took that photo in ’86 or ’87, or who that person third from the left is. Make sure you’re using a pencil that isn’t permanent so it doesn’t harm or indent the photo—never use a pen!
Photo-safe storage box: A good quality storage box with labelled index cards can make a world of difference, in the event that you’re looking for a specific photo. It sure beats rifling through old shoeboxes and drawers!

Obey the Two-Second Rule

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is all while going through old photos is to obey the two-second rule.

It’s okay to take a walk down memory lane—but it’s important to prioritize your time. Spring cleaning doesn’t need to take the entire season. When cleaning and organizing your old photographs, remember not to linger longer than two seconds before determining its place. You’ll have plenty to enjoy them after they’re organized!