A client sent me a very generous gift card, so I bought something I’ve been wanting for a long time–a mechanism to digitize our old photos. This scanner is the best thing I’ve bought in a long time~~and would make an AMAZING gift for someone who has a lot of old photos. I’ve been scanning old photos like crazy with my new Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300!
I bought the scanner because we have boxes and shelves and more boxes and totes of albums of old photos, and I’ve wanted to digitize them for a very long time. I scanned more than 500 photos on the first day I had it. It actually operated faster than I could keep up, and that’s saying a lot! It easily scans from the tiniest little individual school photo right up to 8” x 10”s.
I’ve had it nearly a month now, and I bet I’ve scanned 2,000+ photos. Some photos take longer than others because there are a lot of editing features built in to the scanner software. Once you’ve saved the photos, you can’t go back and edit. I’ve tried to be patient and make sure the photos are up to my standards before I save them ‘as-is’. So some of the older photos take a bit more finessing before I save them.
A few people have asked how I’m organizing and storing the digitized photos. I’ll tell you what I’ve done, and also welcome advice on what’s worked for you. I’m scanning the photos in to folders on my computer that are organized by year. Within those year folders I have sub-folders that are ‘my side’ and ‘Jay’s side’, and then miscellaneous.
Because I wanted to give the link to these photos as a gift to the kids at Christmas, I needed to get the photos to a location where they can be tagged with names, dates and locations. I opted for Google Photos, with a backup stored to a portable hard drive. Google Photos is a little disturbing in how easily it links a grandma-looking person to a baby’s face, and it’s often correct. It makes some of the detective work a bit easier when it makes suggestions. It’ll pop up with “Are these faces the same person?”…Well, I guess they are!
Pictured above are some school photos that Jay remembers are from Puerto Rico. I was amazed at how many names he remembered (and that cutie with the glasses was a twin, and there’s another photo in there of someone who looks just like her, glasses and all). A few scan samples below. I didn’t do much editing.
Jay Shenk surfing in Puerto Rico (1965-ish)
My brother Jay Andrews (goalie) and step-brother Cory Richard (front row, second from right), Gardner Hockey (1984-ish)
Apparently someone wanted to unfriend Abigail Shenk (2000-ish)
My in-laws Jay and Shirley Shenk at my father-in-law’s graduation from Yale Divinity School, June 11, 1956…taken in front of the quonset hut that they lived in with 2 kids. What is a quonset hut? Jay always explains it to the kids as living in a tin can…”The Quonset Hut is an easily recognizable architectural form”
Jay Shenk as a teen in Puerto Rico.
Jay’s father Jay Shenk and his pipe-smoking friend assembling toys on Christmas (1954-ish)
Abigail Shenk–that’s how we parent around here (1999)
My mother, Judy Page (left) and one of my high school graduation photos (that chair was sooo cool at the time)
Jay Shenk and his brother Tim Shenk with Santa
Jay’s father (also Jay) and his sister Betty (1930-ish)
My mother-in-law Shirley Shenk (1954ish)
