I cannot recall if I ever posted what my business actually IS. I think I wanted to get a website up and then do a big reveal. But things are not proceeding according to that plan, which is ok.
What I offer is on-site scanning and digitization consulting and services. "Have scanner, will travel." If you are in the Chicago area and want someone to come to your home, your church, your museum or archive or library, and digitize a collection, or offer you expert knowledge and guidance on setting up a digitization program, that is what I can do.
A colleague and friend of mine had agreed to a kind of barter/trade. I would use her as a test guinea pig and she would do something for me. I discovered something very important. When I have transported myself and my equipment to your house, and gotten all set up, and you are going through your family history and those old photos, 90 minutes (my basic appointment) is probably not going to be enough for you.
You are probably going to discover more and more important pictures. Once you crack open those old albums, you will see more and more pictures you forgot you even had. And you will want to share them. You will begin pulling them out and piling them up to get done. You may start going through your house and pulling down framed photos from off the walls, because if they are framed and on display, they are super important to you. Then your husband, your mother, your kids will come in, they will see the pictures out, they will start looking at them, start asking questions.
Suddenly you are telling stories and reminiscing and having a wonderful day. And I get to be a part of it, I get to hear your stories, you start showing me pictures and telling me what's important about them.
Unlike strangers in a lab someplace in India, I actually want to hear these stories. I actually want you to tell me your stories.
I had no idea, but that is what happened. And i was there longer and longer, and there seemed to be so much to do. Eight hours, I spent, and we did over 200 photos and pieces of memorabilia, all at archival and preservation quality (no 300 dpi jpgs for these memories).
I left and it was after midnight and I was wiped. It was such a good day.
My colleague said her mother, who was out for the week, would probably cry when she saw photos of her late husband and her childhood all on her computer for her to look at. No more handing over you only copy of a picture to some relative who wants it and leaving gaps in the family albums, Now she can just email photos and say, here, make your own print.
She also said I'd barely scratched the surface of this big task she'd been meaning to take on for years, and never got to it. Now at least it is started. The most important parts are digital.
I am super excited. I loved it. She loved it. It makes people so happy. And since I am right there, the gratification is instant. No waiting 4-8 weeks for a huge box of your precious memories to be shipped ot some lab with strangers processing them. Nope, I come out that week, I show you what I am doing, I make suggestions, and then I do it for you.
Then you get to sit at my computer and do a visual check. You get to scroll through everything. And meanwhile I have cropped to your specifications. I have updated the color. I have zoomed it in so you can really see what's important.
What she said: It's like my relatives all came alive again!
I love it.
5 comments:
What a wonderful thing! I have a filing cabinet full of old pictures that were my mom's. Too bad I live in Wisconsin because I would love to know how to keep them archivally. Have you ever heard of 1000memories.com and the shoebox app, probably not the best way to scan I know but you can also download the pictures there and its an easy place for people to find and share other family pictures.
Keep up the great work!!!!
Yes, I do have it. I think that is a great temporary solution if you just want others to identify the pictures. But it is not a good long term solution at all, in my opinion. And you cannot really reprint those pictures. Not that people want to reprint necessarily, but I am a scrapbooker so I do reprint sometimes rather than messing up my originals.
this has got to be such a fulfilling thing to do! Too bad my parents live 3 hours away from Chicago, because they have stacks of photo albums and my grandmother's written journals that I would love to have digitized. When we visited them last summer, I tried to take photos of some of the album pages, but it just didn't work (they don't own a scanner). My mom said, "oh, you can take them with you" but I just couldn't do it. (1. the responsibility of having them; and 2. no room in my luggage!)
I hope your business takes off!
thanks!
3 hours is not that far away, if someone was willing to pay a surcharge for the travel, and booked me a certain minimum amount of time. Like I would not drive 3 hrs there and back too for a 90 minute appointment, but for an 8 hour session plus travel costs, I might.
Thank you so much for all your great comments on recent posts of mine. Best of luck with your business! Sound like you will be very busy :)
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