How to Organize Photos

[DLynskey]

I'm sure I'm not the only one with this situation. Over the years I have accumulated thousands of photos of antique autos, mostly from car shows. Most I have converted to digital format and labeled them with make, model year, etc. and have them stored on my PC. I know what's there and can usually find a particular photo without too much effort. The problem is, when I'm gone they're gone. Nobody is going to look through my computer files for them. My family has no interest in them.

 

Two questions:

 

1) Is there a program to better organize the files, maybe add more information and make them searchable?

 

2) How could I make them available to future antiquers? It might be false pride, but I think they would be of interest to many on this forum and might be of some value to younger generations when they embark on  restorations but have not actually seen these cars. I know there are some online resources for sharing photos, but I question whether they will be around decades from now. When the website is no longer profitable guess what happens too your photos. Suggestions? 

 

Don

[Brass is Best]

Perhaps put the photos on a drive and send a copy to the AACA library, your local library etc...

[1937hd45]

Quote

 

Sounds like a great idea, I'm clueless to what you have already saved and stored. Bob 

[DLynskey]

52 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

Sounds like a great idea, I'm clueless to what you have already saved and stored. Bob 

 

Bob, thanks for your interest. What do you want to see? From your handle I guess you're into Harley-Davidson 45's. Here is a photo I took around 1963 of my buddy's HD 45 (ca. 1952) alongside my HD 165 cc at an AACA meet. They were not old enough to be antiques but are what we rode to the meet. I got my first 35-mm camera in 1962, a hand-me-down Argus C-3 from a friend of my father. The camera was already obsolete by then but took good pictures if you were careful.

 

 

A coupe of older Harley's I found stored under a porch in North Georgia about the same time period.

 

 

 

I took photos at AACA meets in the southeast from 1962 until this most recent example, a striking1917 Locomobile Model 38, one of about 100 photos I took at the Charlotte meet a few weeks ago.

 

 

I have used my photos a number of times to answer questions on this forum. One photo of a custom Packard I took in the 60's is the only known pre-restoration photo of a car currently being restored. Another early photo of a prominent AACA member and his car was used in Antique Automobile magazine upon his passing.

 

Just some examples since you asked.

 

Don 

 

 

 

 

 

[MCHinson]

You can post them in the Gallery on this site: https://forums.aaca.org/gallery/

If you identify them the terms you use will be searchable to make them easier for people to find what they are looking for. 

[John_S_in_Penna]

If you want to keep photographs, consider a very

long-term medium for history's sake.  I understand

that any magnetic medium (such as computer disks)

is relatively short-lived.

 

At an AACA Library seminar a few years ago at the

Philadelphia annual meeting, a guest speaker mentioned

a special kind of gold compact disk (CD) that has a

longer life.  It's not just any gold-colored CD, but is

available through specialty sources.

 

Remember, though, that computer formats often change.

If you stored data in the 1970's, the format might be

unusable now.  If you stored data in the 1980's, it might

be on 5" floppy disks;  the 1990's, 3-1/2" diskettes.  Do

you have any equipment today to read those older formats?

In just 50 years, will anyone be able to view a JPG file? 

 

Good quality paper lasts longer.  It's easy to read a magazine

from the 1780's and learn the thinking of the author when our

country was being formed.  Magazines similarly exist from

the 1880's or 1920's, for instance, and information is preserved. 

I recently learned that the Smithsonian Institution does

not rely on magnetic media to store information.  I believe

that they print out their photographs and keep them on paper.

They actually transfer digital files to film negatives for longevity.

Edited May 18, 2019 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

Twenty years ago when I started to stumble around on a computer I had a camera that used full size floppy disks. I've got box after box filled with them. Lots of old eBay sales and family memories of the kids and maybe early grand kids photos. All them locked away never to be seen again unless I buy the equipment to see and somehow transfer the wanted photos. The '37 Harley is long gone but there are several years of the Oley, Pa meets on those floppy disks.  Bob 

[DLynskey]

2 hours ago, MCHinson said:

You can post them in the Gallery on this site: https://forums.aaca.org/gallery/

If you identify them the terms you use will be searchable to make them easier for people to find what they are looking for. 

Matt,

 

I posted a number of photos on the AACA Gallery probably 10 years ago or more. Now I can't find them. Are they still there somewhere?

 

Don

[MCHinson]

They should be. I admit I seldom use or visit the Gallery, but they should still be there. My problem is I seldom take the time to tag photos with identifying information, so trying to find them via a search is difficult. 

[mike6024]

This forum is difficult to use. If I want to search the photo Gallery for pictures uploaded by "DLynskey" I don't even know how to do it.

[39BuickEight]

When I try to upload photos here to the gallery, it just sits there and thinks when I hit the upload button.  I tried a few times over the past 5-6 months and ending up just giving up.  They weren’t anything important.

[Mark Shaw]

You might want send them to the Library of Congress....