Digital Photos: What happens to them when I die?

Posted on May 31, 2008
Filed Under Blogging and the Internet, LIFE, Thoughts | Viewed 420 times

Printed (some faded) Photographs

One evening a few days ago, I found Monica and the rest of the kids having a grand time looking at photographs scattered on the floor—all unsorted out. These were the bag of pictures I remember having brought with me to Beijing in 2000 where I had a 6-month posting. I thought, with the 180 days I had all by myself, I would be able to put them together at least in photo albums, at most doing scrapbooks for each of my 7 kids. Six months did pass me by, they came home with me—at least sorted out for each family member but not in an album nor in a scrap book, as part of my kilos and kilos of unaccompanied luggage that came together with all the other stuff that I accumulated from endles shopping in Beijing and other parts of the Peoples Republic of China.

The kids were so delighted to look at the photographs, in between reminiscing the stories related to each picture, and the different emotions attached—funny, embarrassing, high and low moments, proud moments, and many more. I was one person who would photograph each move, at any time of night and day, candid, directed, and in the process spending a lot of my money having them developed. It was difficult for them to identify which baby was which for photos that had no date, but for me it was easy. I still remember how each of them were when they were babies and tiny tots, each child different from the other, having his or her own special traits. They had a great time teasing me with the way I looked, from hair style, to being fat, to looking lost or older, to the choice of clothes I wore—good thing was that, they liked the way I look in the present, though some wanted my youthful looking face.

They ended up, each holding a couple of pictures—their favorites, and the few days afterwards, I saw them scanning the photos-converted to digital photos, and uploading them in their Multiply and Friendster accounts. They treated them like they were their most precious finds, their treasures.

Which reminds me…

about the thousands and thousands of digital photos among me and my kids kept in different social networks, like Mutilpy, Friendster, Facebook, etc., and the other hosts like Photobucket and Flickr. Surprisingly, I found more than a hundred photo sharing hosts here.

What happens with my digital photos when I die? Especially those that are in private accounts? Yes, they are securely in place now because I know where I keep them for viewing by private friends and contacts. They are there, that is for as long as I live, or for as long as I have the ability to work on the computer. I have heard of some hosts just shutting down, though.

My apprehensions

And to think that since a few years back, I have not had the time to print out the photos, even those that were taken on special occasions, like birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, different milestones and my numerous travels. It is very handy to just open the computer and look at the digital photos. Now my mother, some of my aunts and family members who do not use the computer complain that they no longer see photos and that they can no longer show off photos of their children and grandchildren, their achievements and happy moments with kin and kith. True, and rather selfish sometimes.

Nothing is certain in this life, we do not know what is in store for us tomorrow. If I die, and I do not leave the user names and passwords to my family, the digital photos will be burried with me. Or on a less grim scenario, what if the hard disk where digital photos are kept crashes (sad to say, it has happened one time or another) or the discs where they are stored get lost. The digital photos are gone forever.

What will happen with the photos of our future national heroes, presidents,and icons, if all of them are in digitalized forms, all kept in the individual repositories?

Printed and hard copies

Angelo has written about his apprehensions on trusting memories to a web app and he has a point. I have also written about rediscovering the joy of hard or printed copies, such that I would now like to print a handful of photos. Now I need time to look for these pictures. I must find some time to organize them, as BA and the rest of the kids have been suggesting.

Now, what?

I am no computer or gadget savvy, but these are just some of my apprehensions. Will I include my user names and passwords in my last will and testament? Or do I need to start a family repository, storing all the links in one place, where the family members could access, and which could be passed on from one generation to another? Oh great idea—I can start another network, somthing that has to do with a family repository of links, not only to digital photographs, but to written products as well, like blogs, websites or significant links from others, to have them available from one generation to the next.

How about you, do you have a bright idea to share?

Comments

11 Responses to “Digital Photos: What happens to them when I die?”

kathy on May 30th, 2008 7:53 pm

I never bother printing hardcopies of our digital photos anymore because I think it’s just an unnecessary waste of paper and ink, electricity and what-have-you. I’d rather save the trees; they’d last much longer than the printed photographs would. But that’s just me.

As for digiphotos, of course we can never trust the photo repositories online to keep them indefinitely for us. There are several media available nowadays for data storage, so I don’t really see a problem if we want to make dozens if not hundreds of backups and copies of photos we want to keep. Except perhaps for the possibility that such media will be so outdated in the future (think 5 1/4” floppy disks!) that nobody will ever bother try accessing them anymore.

Sexy Mom: that’s another dilemma, i remembe starting years and years ago with the 8” diskettes—remember them? lol
glenville on May 30th, 2008 10:11 pm

this is one dilemma i have not thought of! enjoyed your post – made me think of what i’m going to do with the thousands of digital pcitures i have accummulated through the years. i still have some of our family pictures developed but usually only those that are really nice (which means i’d want to display them around the house in picture frames). a friend of mine had his pictures saved in a video cd presentation format complete with background music, fade ins and fade outs, and would show the loop whenever guests are waiting in the living room in his house. this is one cool idea I’d like to do but would have to find time to actually do it. =)

Sexy mom: yes, a cool idea, if only i also knew how to do it. tutorial from the kids perhaps?
annamanila on May 31st, 2008 12:04 am

Oh, Dine, these are really precious! Mabuti hindi nagdikitdikit ano? My fave is the pic where they lie about in all directions—wala pa si alan jr dito, ano? I think i spot angelo (sumakit ang leeg ko pagsipat sa kanya) and vince. Si BA ba yung nakablue? Ang ganda naman ng baby girl. Is that Monica?

You know I am not at great one at keeping things, including family pics. Hay, sad. Minsan dyahi ako sa mga anak ko. But that’s me. So I am really thankful for the new technology. We have stored pics in the hard disks and some we transfer to photobucket. I guess we should copy everything to photobucket for safety. A few find its way to my blog. Some pictures we got to print too.

Thanks, you were the one who introduced me to photobucket.

Sexy Mom: what happens when photobucket shuts down? hu hu hu
dimaks on May 31st, 2008 5:16 pm

for me, i would burn them digital photos and other media into dvd cds. we don’t know when will these online repositories shut down in sudden.

Sexy Mom: you have a point, dimaks!
Kyels on May 31st, 2008 8:23 pm

The photos bring back nostalgic moments … [:

Well, with the growth of technology these days, we can’t really determine how we’d like to store these vital family data for the future but if possible, I’d like to store it in a database repository and encode a voice recognition system into the computer whereby the people connected to those data can use their voices as the password/identification to the files/databases. I reckon that a few years down the road (since there’s an android phone; developed by Google) most computers will be classified in the android community with high AI capabilities so by then voice recognition and analysis won’t be a problem anymore.

What do you think?

Sexy Mom: and i have always wondered what you would do with your so beautiful photos. and kyels, that’s too advanced for me, i can’t seem to catch up.
Alex on June 1st, 2008 5:48 am

Hi Tita!

Very nice to see you have a whole collection of photos.

I am a bit sentimental myself and would love to have prints of digital photos. But I’m quite content looking at them on my computer.

And, unfortunately for me, I have always been the photographer and not the model so I rarely have a picture with myself on it. :p

Sexy Mom: i saw one sel-photo in your blog!
Leah on June 1st, 2008 11:53 am

Gettting a back-up is always good. We’ve purchased an external hard drive so all photos are there.

I’ve always thought about my social networking accounts as well as blogging when and if i say bye-bye to dear earth. I’ve been meaning to write my username and passwords in a diary and maybe put that in your will that you allow them to read your diary.

Sexy Mom: maybe, the time is now to be serious about all these things,
Belle on June 2nd, 2008 10:15 am

i love the second to the last picture. and ku cute ng mga bata especially the last one on the right. si Pau or Chato ba iyan? you and your husband produced beautiful and smart children.

Sexy Mom: hi Belle! same here—you, too, produced beautiful girls, combination of good genes yata.
analyse on June 3rd, 2008 4:01 am

i love the second pix.. they’re all so cute.. i have the same dilemma, well, for the pictures, i have a external hard disk which i keep in the office, that’s a copy of everything you could find in my pc at home.. some thieves entered our house years ago and i was really afraid i lost all our pictures, buti na lang hindi, from then on, i bought a hard disk for a duplicate copy.. for louna’s blog, i dont know tho how i could keep it, sana di mag shut down ang blogger

Sexy Mom: that’s what my kids have been nagging me about.
Lorna Dietz on June 3rd, 2008 5:26 am

Hi, Dine!

I put all my user names and passwords in one g-mail account—- which no one knows. Of course, since I can never remember my passwords, I rely on this repository of passwords to tickle my memory.

I guess I’ll include this e-mail address in a sealed envelope (for the lawyers) to be opened only when I die. All the secrets will be “out” and whether I am venerated or maligned, I couldn’t care less. I would already have dissolved in the light of my own consciousness—- and will continue my advocacies in another lifetime.

Nice thought, ha!

Sexy Mom: I definitely agree with you, Lorns! lol (i also store all my user names and pw in one folder in my gmail account, and that includes user names and PWs in banks, etc.

Lorna
KK aka Tina on June 3rd, 2008 9:52 pm

Hi Sexymom,
Such wonderful pictures of your family. Personally, I am overwhelmed with the thousands of digital pictures we have now. Since we started taking photos with a digital camera, the photos have been staying in our hard drive except from several pictures that I have printed out. We do however have a data server to store them in but I still want to choose the ones that I like the best and print them out.

It’s easy to upload the pictures and then have them printed out in Costco for about 17cents for 4×6. Maybe it’s a good business prospect to start it there? Online photo printing that is.

Sexy Mom: that’s a good idea. my kids go to Kodak, they say it’s easy, fast and not expensive.