Monthly Archives: November 2018

Don’t Let Politics Ruin the Holidays (Again)

Posted on November 30, 2018 by

thanksgivingtable 300x200 - Don’t Let Politics Ruin the Holidays (Again)In the age of Trump, how to create healthy discourse during the holidays by sharing nostalgic family photos, rather than waging a political minefield of bellicose bickering


A family is thicker than water – except in this post-2016 election era. How many of you walked away from nine punishing rounds of political “discourse” during Christmas last year, vowing never to speak to your once-favorite cousin or idiotic brother-in-law ever again?


Agree! Rather than discussing politics during Christmas and holiday gatherings–share pictures

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If the data is any indication, a lot of us cut visits short or avoided Christmas, Hannukah and the holidays altogether. In a paper, M. Keith Chen of UCLA and Ryne Rohla of Washington State University, politically divided families avoided each since the election. Using smartphone data, the researchers determined where people live versus where they spent Christmas – and how long they stayed. Then they collected 2016 presidential voting data at the precinct level to approximate political leanings.


Forget Politics! How to Focus on Family History During the Holidays

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pic6 300x199 - Don’t Let Politics Ruin the Holidays (Again)The results were startling. Compared to 2015, Democratic voters were about 5 percent less likely than Republicans to travel for Thanksgiving in 2016. Those who did travel did not significantly shorten their visits to Republican hosts. Republicans were more likely to travel to a distant for Christmas and holiday dinners, but they shortened their visits by over 40 minutes. Visits were also shortened proportionally to the number of political ads aired in the traveler’s home media market. For every thousand political ads, visits were shortened by 1.5 minutes. In Florida, that resulted in a 1.2-hour reduction in holiday time for politically divided families.


Forget Politics! Focus on Family History During the Holidays

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Given the divisive political climate, we continue to live in, things might not be much different this year. So, the big question is, how do we cross that divide? How do we enjoy a calm and (mostly) Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and holiday season dinners? How do we get through Christmas without resorting to sword fights with rolls of wrapping paper? How do we survive – and maybe even heal – our broken families?


The effect of partisanship and political advertising on close family ties


Agree ahead of time to focus the conversation on what binds you together: your shared family history. Revisit photos and home movies from yesteryear. Put together a slideshow of digitized photos and display it on your TV. Ask everyone to bring their favorite family memories to share over dinner. If you have a family historian, request that they tote along the big photo album that contains images going back generations. (And let them know that they don’t have to bring along great-grandma’s fruit cake recipe this year.)


Our photo scanning company has digitized more than 600 million family photos, and we often hear from customers about how much these photos mean to them, how many memories they conjured, how many new stories they got to hear from great-grandma because the photos jogged her memory.


  • Pull out the photos
  • Share the stories from the past, but not politics
  • Maybe instead of shrieking and whooping at each other, reminisce
  • Instead of lunging at each other, laugh
  • Instead of screaming at each other, cry together
  • How far would you travel for that kind of togetherness?

* Source:


Published by, Mitch Goldstone, President & CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com

 

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This Week in Photo Interviews ScanMyPhotos

Posted on November 28, 2018 by

This Week in Photo, one of the top photography podcasts is featuring the world of photo scanning and a behind-the-scenes discussion with our CEO, Mitch Goldstone at ScanMyPhotos.com with Frederick Van Johnson.


TWiP 300x209 - This Week in Photo Interviews ScanMyPhotosThis Week in Photography (TWiP) is a weekly photography podcast. TWiP recorded its first show at the 2008 MacWorld Expo, launching on January 28, 2008, and is consistently ranked as the #1 photography podcast on iTunes.


The show is co-hosted by Frederick Van Johnson and Alex Lindsay with contributors Scott Bourne, Ron Brinkmann, Frederick Johnson, and Steve Simon. In addition to the contributors, the show features regular guest contributors including photographers Nicole Young and Sara France.


I just watched @ThisWeekInPhoto interview with ScanMyPhotos.com

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Excerpt: Mitch Goldstone of ScanMyPhotos.com joins me to discuss the ins-and-outs of scanning in today’s high-tech world. Is scanning still relevant? What is the state-of-the-art? And what are some pitfalls that you should be aware of when choosing a company to entrust your precious family archives to.



Mitch, leading ScanMyPhotos.com commercialized professionally digitizing photo and other imaging content and the company, headquartered in Irvine, CA has scanned 600 million pictures.


Here’s a great piece on C|Net about ScanMyPhotos.


The company is passionate about preserving pictures so they are not ruined from natural disasters, as was profiled in this Weather Channel segment.


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#TBT Christmas Edition: 3 Creative Ways to Celebrate

Posted on November 26, 2018 by

Blank christmas photo framesAn opportunity like this only comes around once every seven years: Christmas will be falling on a Thursday this year!


For those who may not know, #TBT stands for “Throwback Thursday” where Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites, honor this trending hashtag by posting old/throwback photos.


Since Christmas is on a Tuesday this year, our big question is: how do you plan to celebrate the holiday and this catchy social media trend?


Consider trying one of these creative ideas to make this upcoming #TBT the most wonderful day of the year.


Instead of getting your loved ones a partridge in a pear tree, start by posting an old Christmas photo with #TBT and #12DaysOfChristmas

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12 days of #TBT

 

Friday, December 14th will be the first of the twelve days of Christmas. Instead of getting your loved ones a partridge in a pear tree, start by posting an old Christmas photo with #TBT and #12DaysOfChristmas. You can even caption your scanned photos with: “Christmas is on throwback Thursday this year, but I’m starting early! I’ll post one old Christmas photo here every day until the 25th. Stay tuned!”

 

Then/now themed holiday cards

 

For a “Then/Now” themed Christmas card, combine a “back-in-day” holiday photo with a recent photo of you and your family. Underneath the photo on the card include #TBT and tell loved ones to watch their social media pages on the 25th. Then, on Christmas Day, fill your newsfeed with a mixture of old Christmas photos combined with the new 2018 ones.

 

Play a game of #TBT tag with relatives

 

Every Thursday from Thanksgiving until Christmas, you can play a game with your relatives on Facebook. Tell them since the 25th falls on #TBT this year, you’ll upload an old photo of a family member every Thursday until Christmas. The first family member to correctly tag or identify the person in the photo will get an extra present from you on the big day. This is a great way to get everyone in the family talking and connecting before the holiday.

 

The #TBT trend is a fun way to celebrate old memories and get everyone reminiscing on your social networks, but there’s an even better way to honor this upcoming Christmas #TBT with your friends and family. If you haven’t done so already, use the ScanMyPhotos bulk scanning option to get your old photos scanned and uploaded to DVD before the holiday. You can then show your loved ones all the good memories you’ve had throughout the years by looping the images on a computer or TV during the holiday.

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The Mercury News: “What to do with your old photos and papers”

Posted on November 25, 2018 by
Marni at home - The Mercury News: "What to do with your old photos and papers"

Award-winning journalists, author, and speaker, Marni Jameson. Photo courtesy of Marni Jameson (c).

What to do with your old photos and papers


This nationally syndicated article by “At Home With Marni Jameson” on the urgency to digitize pictures was reported by Award-Winning Journalist Marni Jameson, America’s most beloved home and lifestyle columnist.


In addition to writing a weekly nationally syndicated column on all things home, Marni is the author of three best-selling books.


Her most recent book, “DOWNSIZING THE FAMILY HOME: What to Keep, What to Let Go” (Sterling), is a No.1 Amazon bestseller and it is the definitive guide for anyone cleaning out the family home.


Award-winning journalist, Marni Jameson shares how and why to digitize photos

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If you are a fan of Real Simple, O Magazine, Martha Stewart and the top unclutter and organizing professionals, Marni eclipses all and wrote the primer, actually many. The author, syndicated columnist, and speaker now tackles what to do with your lifetime of memorabilia, pictures and more for today’s all-digital world with this column syndicated in the top 25 U.S. newspapers. As a humblebrag, ScanMyPhotos.com is grateful for the mention to help many preserve their irreplaceable photo memories.


Excerpt:  “You still have boxes of Mom and Dad’s stuff?” I twist my finger in my ear to make sure I’m hearing clearly. I’m on the phone with my brother who’s 3,000 miles away in California. He’s moving, prompting this confession to his sister, the purge queen.


Our parents have both passed on, Mom, most recently, two years ago. Now Craig tells me he’s been holding onto boxes of their stuff because “I can’t bring myself to go through them.”


So much for my plan to plow through the boxes in one afternoon, and send an edited pile of photos to Scanmyphotos.com, where high-speed scanners reduce mountain heaps of snapshots into tidy DVDs in minutes.


The scanners are working overtime lately after a year of hurricanes and wildfires, says owner Mitch Goldstone. “Times like these make people realize all can be gone in a flash.”


I’ve called to tell him about the mess I’m in. He gives me a pep talk. “Every day I see photos and documents destroyed by mildew, moisture, high temperatures, dirt and bugs. Those old storage boxes will just disintegrate,” says Goldstone, whose company scans 300,000 photos a day, which is nothing when you consider that Americans have 3.5 trillion analog photos sitting in shoeboxes taking up storage space and risking permanent loss.


However, the biggest enemy of all, he adds, is procrastination.


Read the full article here

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Washington Post: How to tackle those boxes full of old photos

Posted on November 25, 2018 by

We all have decades of irreplaceable pictures. Yet most are fading away. Thanks to Nicole Anzia, freelance writer and owner of Neatnik for sharing these smart and important tips.


Washington Post: How to digitize decades of photographs

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If you’re over the age of 30, you probably have at least a few — and maybe even a dozen — boxes filled with old printed photos and photo albums. You probably haven’t looked at them in years, and yet you can’t just throw them away. Or maybe your parents are moving, and they’ve asked for help in determining which photos to keep and whether anyone wants part of the collection.


Another option is to have all of your newly organized pictures scanned and digitized, so you can toss the prints and easily send electronic copies to friends and family. There are a number of online companies that provide this service based on a per-print cost, such as ScanCafe, DigMyPics, ScanMyPhotos and Legacybox.


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