Survivors of fires in the Los Angeles area lost important parts of their lives, including homes, livelihoods, communities, and, in some cases, loved ones, due to this disaster. But experts say getting back lost photos of cherished family, friends, and place memories may be easier than you think.
“Photographs can’t replace what was lost, but they can preserve the essence of what they meant,” says Vanessa Quigley, co-founder of online photobook company Chatbooks. “A single photo can bring back the feeling of home, memories of loved ones, and moments that shaped your life.”
Several online photo companies are offering special offers to victims of the Los Angeles fires.
How to recover lost printed photos
While it may not be possible to recover photos printed in old albums or stored in keepsake boxes, there are ways to retrieve lost images through digital sources.
One way is to rebuild your photo collection by crowdsourcing, or asking friends, family, neighbors, and teachers for photos they’ve taken.
For example, if you lose your photo album containing your wedding photos, you can contact your wedding photographer and request a digital copy. You can also contact your wedding guests and ask for copies of the photos they took on the day, says Lee Reams, founder of crowdsourced digital scrapbook company Kwilt.
While you may not be able to retrieve the specific photos you lost, Reams says seeing someone else’s perspective on the day or event can be a fun and even therapeutic experience.
Collecting these photos is as easy as sharing images via text or email. There are also online platforms that allow you to share these photos without relying on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram. Ream’s company, Kwillt, allows users to create specific “patches” related to events or people and invite people to upload photos with their memories written on them. Kwillt is currently offering fire survivors free access to its online platform using the code “MEMORY.”
Photos can also be recovered from old electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and external hard drives. You may even have a few CDs or old SD cards with copies of your family photos.
Companies like DriveSavers can recover and collect photos and data from digital devices that are damaged, crashed, or have mechanical failure. DriveSavers can also recover data contained on computers that have been melted in a fire, as long as the computer’s hard drive has not been exposed to flames.
This website details how to assess whether data can be recovered from a damaged device after a fire.
Fire victims in the Los Angeles area can receive free data recovery assistance from DriveSavers, with a limit of one device per household, according to company CEO Alex Hagan.
You can begin the process by calling DriveSavers at 800-440-1904 and arranging to have your damaged device shipped to your business with a prepaid FedEx label. Hagan said once the data is restored, a new external hard drive with all the information will be mailed to you.
If you’re currently living in temporary housing, the company will store your new external hard drive for you for a few months, but you’ll need to speak to a member of the DriveSavers team first.
How to print recovered digital images as photos
If you select a digital photo that you would like to convert into a print, several online services allow you to upload the image and have the printed version shipped to you. Online photo print providers include:
Most of these services also allow you to use the photos you upload to create items such as albums, cards, mugs, and calendars. Chatbooks, an online custom photobook company, is currently offering free photo prints to fire victims in the Los Angeles area. To start your free service, please send an email to support@chatbooks.com.
Protect your photos by creating multiple backup copies
The best way to create digital backup copies of old printed photos is to scan them.
Scanning all the family photos sitting in a box in your garage may feel like a big job, but Quigley says you can work on the project in chunks until you’ve scanned everything. .
You can purchase an inexpensive flatbed scanner or use an app on your smartphone, such as HP Smart, to scan your photos.
If you scan a photo, be sure to save it as a high-resolution “JPG or JPEG” file. Companies that print digital photos require that the files be “JPG or JPEG.” The file should be high resolution so that you have the flexibility to print the photo at any size without distorting the image.
If you don’t have time to digitize your photo collection, online companies like Legacybox can do it for you.
Once you have your digital photos, Hagan recommends using a “3, 2, 1” strategy for preserving images. Make three copies and save two copies on different types of devices or storage media, such as your computer, hard drive, or USB. Save one copy in an offsite location such as Google, Dropbox, or iCloud.
You can even take it a step further and mail another copy of your images saved on a hard drive, USB, or CD to a trusted family member out of state for safekeeping.
Another option is to keep your digital photos on your device and in a safe. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says these boxes can hold important documents, family memorabilia, photos and other important items.
Experts say online companies may go out of business, services may be limited, and exporting photos from these sites does not necessarily reproduce high-quality images. , warns against relying solely on social media to save your photos.
Make backing up your photos a weekly habit
If you have image files on your computer, phone, or other device, Hagan recommends backing up those photos to cloud storage or an external hard drive at least once a month.
As you continue to take photos, make it a habit to save your digital files once a week or once a month.
Quigley calls this “Sunday Select.” This is a habit I started last Sunday night where I went through my phone’s camera roll, cleaned out the clutter, and saved only the best images.
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