Many of us havestacks and stacks of old photographs, and or slides and negatives. In addition, there are likely to be one – or many – old photo albums sitting in closets, attics, basements, or storage lockers.

The Digital Age is now upon us, and these relics of an earlier time have become what are essentially modern artifacts. We know we have them around, but we seldom look at them anymore. It is too much trouble to dig them out and sort through them. The answer, obviously, is to have all this photographic memorabilia scanned into digital files – in essence, to bring them into the Digital Now.

Well, that's what we should do. But, the most of us just keep putting it off. Often, we just haven't thought through all the reasons why getting all that material scanned is important – but it is! Here's why:

1. All photographic materials will deteriorate with time. The rate of decay is different for various materials, but it is happening to all of your photographic memories just the same.

2. Old slides and negatives tend to color-shift over time. This happens when the film base gradually changes with age. The dyes used to form the image can also fade – most noticeably in the case of color photographs.

3. Once you digitize your pictures, that deterioration is stopped. Perhaps more importantly, the digitized images can, in many cases, be restored to their original condition with relative ease, if the deterioration has not been too great. In addition, there are digital storage discs that are expected to last for over 100 years.

4. To view your slides, you have to dig out your old slide projector (if it still works) - and screen, or a slide viewer, in order to see them.

5. If you have old negatives, you really can't view them at all – unless you have some rare genetic ability to visually invert colors on your own.

6. Due to an unfortunate technical oversight, the manufacturers of old photo albums neglected to install USB ports (it may have to do with the fact that the technology didn't quite exist at that time). That means, unfortunately, there is no easy way to upload them to your computer. A scanning service, however, can scan not only the full album pages (to preserve the “flavor” of the album), but they can also scan the individual pictures as well, if desired.

7. Your past is important – not only to you, but to your children and grandchildren (if any) and other members of your family. Your old photographs represent the best (perhaps the only!) record of that past. When you digitize them, you can then share them with all of your friends and loved ones.

8. Once they exist as digital files, all of your old photographs can be shared easily. You can post them to your Facebook pages, upload them to Pinterest, and share them on all your favorite social media sites.

9. Uploading your scanned photos onto your computer will turn it into a time machine. Now, all those valued (or, in some cases – forgotten) parts of your history can be brought up in seconds, so they can be enjoyed and shared.

10. When they exist in digital form, those treasured mementos can be rehabilitated as much as needed. So, even if your memories have faded, the photos of your past can be viewed as though it all happened yesterday.

Don't keep putting off the project of rescuing your photographic past. While it may seem like a large undertaking, once you get into it you are likely to find that it is not only fun, but very rewarding. If you have a large amount of material to be converted, a good scanning service will make it easy to set up a Monthly Program, so that you can send a batch of slides, photographs, and/or negatives on a monthly basis. This allows you to spread out the cost, as well as the time involved.

Another important feature of a good scanning service is the ability to provide you with both photograph restoration and editing (retouching) services. That way, all your needs can be met by one Scanning Service Provider.