Sure, we are all cool modern photographers now with our digital cameras, USB drives, DVD back-ups and all the rest. But have you given any thought to those hundreds thousands of photos from the land before time digital that are stuck in shoe boxes, sticky photo albums or in slides?

What about photos of YOU as a child? Or the family albums from your ancestors? Recently we had a terrible wild-fire rush through my town which destroyed over 100 homes. While mine was not at risk, my mother’s home was.

As I helped her to evacuate her pets, computer and valuables I stood in front of the stacks and stacks of albums and boxes containing all the photographic history for my family. It was overwhelming. Not having much time I grabbed a few and left.

After the fire, and thankfully my childhood home was spared, I decided I HAD to digitize those photos. ALL of them. But scanning a million photos one at a time? It would take a life time. But guess what? I found a solution. A solution for all of us!

ScanMyPhoto is a service that will mail you a heavy duty box. You fill it up with photos (holds about 1000) and they will scan all of them, put them on disks and even printout a proof book of each photo (with corresponding image numbers given). Sounds too expensive? IT’S NOT. ($49.95 for 1000 photos).

Got VHS videos of little Billy being born? Yup, they will convert that too. Slides? Film? All of it to digital. And you can make numerous copies. Put one in a safe desposit box or mail a copy to relatives (finally no more fighting over who gets the funny photo of Dad dressed as Santa).

Well, I am off to empty more albums and protect the memories I treasure, like this photo of me with my dad when I was 6 years old. Before I knew about photography or the tragedy of plaid pants.