Many people cherish photographs of their children, of current friends as well as friends from times past, and relatives both dead and living. Photographs help to preserve memories of days gone by, and may be passed from one generation to the next. This makes storing photographs for protection and preservation very important. Fortunately, there are more ways to store photos today than ever before. They can be kept in physically, in photo albums, or digitally, on a computer, online, or on DVD.
For many years, people have used photo albums to store and protect cherished photographs. In some cases, the photo album would include thick acid free paper as the housing for the photographs. Adhesive corners would be affixed to each photo, which would then be positioned on the pages. Later albums included adhesive pages that included clear plastic sheeting over each page. Over time, some of the adhesives used in these types of photo albums were proven to cause a degree of damage, and were replaced with others that are less likely to degrade the photos. Many people today still use the traditional photo album to hold their pictures.
Photo storage today also includes several electronic alternatives. There is the option of online photo albums, which allows digital images to be uploaded and saved permanently on a web site on the Internet. The ability to store photos online means there is no fading, tearing, or losing a valued photograph. One of the advantages of these online homes for photos is that it makes sharing the photographs with friends and relatives an easy task. If the album is open to the public, the viewer simply needs to know the URL. Private albums allow the owner to grant access to anyone he or she wishes to view and download the images.
Along with the online albums, people may choose to store photos in a DVD photo storage format. Taking only a small amount of space, a standard DVD will hold a large number of photographs. It is even possible to create sections of chapters in the DVD photo album, making it easy to organize the photos for easy retrieval. Best of all, it is possible to copy the entire contents of the DVD onto another disk, making it possible to create a backup in case the original is ever damaged, or even to copy the album and pass it on to other people. With very little cost involved, the DVD photo album saves time, money, and easily preserves images that will evoke happy memories for many years to come.