The Gift of Memories (or Memory) ScanDigital helps you save yours for a lifetime

My father was an accomplished and avid photographer (among other numerous talents) who never missed an opportunity to take a photo (here, he's at the helm of the Gemini , in a rare photo he didn't take).

As a result of dad's hobby, we had to pose a lot growing up, and the family also had an entire wall unit just devoted to boxes of slides.

Dad passed away in March, and I inherited these slides. I definitely wanted to preserve them, along with the still photos and movies he took over the years. The problem was that I don't have a house with a wall I could dedicate to dad's slides (not to mention my husband didn't embrace the idea). Worse, even though dad had stored the images as best he could, many of the older slides had already faded so the images were barely discernable, and others had almost completely lost their vibrant color.

How to save and enjoy our family's images? The answer was obvious: digitize them!

There are quite a few places you can digitize slides, and the costs are modest. But I worried that if I sent my priceless slides in the mail and they were lost, I'd be lost, too. Eventually it became clear to me that the only reasonably priced way to digitize slides, photos, or film was to send them out to a company that specializes in these activities. One that seemed good and that I selected, was ScanDigital http://www.scandigital.com/

The first step was to register for an online account (as easy and straightforward as is everything on the web site--absolutely a no-brainer). Not so easy was the one part ScanDigital can't do for you: decide what images you want to keep. For me, that was the most challenging part of the process. Unless you are going to just send every slide you ever took (and that's pretty boring to look at later on not to mention costly), you have to be selective. Although I have already sent in a batch of slides, I am still working through this process and learned from my first experience that you really do need to organize the slides you select in batches and mark them. or you'll have a hodgepodge when you get them back in digitized form.

Scan Digital has "starter packagers" where they will digitize 100 photos, slides or negatives for just $89.95, but almost no one who has family slides and photos will be able to keep to just 200 items total. The most popular package ScanDigital sells is 250 slides, photos or negatives for $319.95 (you can do up to 1,000 slides, photos or negatives for $599.95). If you just want to order "a la carte" as I did, it's 68 cents per 2000 dpi 35mm slide and 88 cents per 4000 35mm dpi slide (the rest of the prices are reasonable, and very clearly stated on the prices page on the website.

The next step is to decide what format you want your digitized images in. I chose images on a CD, because I wanted to have the flexibility of that medium. But you can also get a slide show $99 additional complete with all the bells and whistles the pros would give you and ScanDigital even sells a digital photo frame onto which they will automatically put up to 1000 images for an additional $129.00. You can also select your resolution: normal or High (additional 20 cents each item).

Then there's the issue of how to pack your slides. This worried me a great deal because humidity, light, and temperature could further deteriorate the older slides, and ruin newer ones. I chose the DigiPack $10.00 additional because it offered me a pre-paid UPS label directly from ScanDigital along with packing material and instructions. This seemed to be the most secure way to ship the slides back (I added more packing material because I had metal-framed slides in my box and I wanted to be sure they didn't damage the other ones). You can feel secure using UPS and a well-wrapped box of your own to save the $10 if you choose. In either case, I suggest putting your slides in groups, in zip-lock bags you label specifically with the content and in what order you want the bunches of slides to appear.

After UPS picked up the box, I had a nervous moment, but ScanDigital was communicative by email and I felt much better after I knew they received the box back. Not long afterwards, I got my Compact Disk and my slides back in good shape.

You can see the quality of the results for yourself. The only negative (no pun intended ) were that my oldest, square, format slides were so color damaged while the technicians did a good job in restoring the images, in some cases the color was off, or faded or had spots on the image. The first photo of the very young "Advice Sisters" in yellow tops was one of the format slides and as you can see, the color and clarity is fine. The slide of my sister and I and our cousin Hilary and Cat, was a later slide that also looks fine. The bottom slide of my always glamorous mother, reclining on a couch, has yellow dots. But damaged format slides like this one would not have survived at all without ScanDigital's intervention. There is only so much you can do when a slide is already in bad shape. The rest of my slides were there for me to enjoy in living color. ScanDigital also lets you view your photos online, re-organize and make your own slide show, and even order prints or get gift cards.

When I had questions, ScanDigital responded quickly. I really needn't have worried. It was really easy, and now I have my images in a format that I can use to watch any time I feel like it, or upload to a digital photo frame on my own, or print out, or add to a T-shirt or coffee mug, or use any way I wish! After going through the process once with a test batch of slides, I am actually eager to complete my own, personal, digitized library.

The holidays are coming. This year, why not give a gift of digital images? It is a gift that really does last (almost) forever and that is personal and will be loved by everyone. Whether your offer up a gift card for digitizing services or create your own trip down memory lane, your gift will be a hit. Or, simply do your kids a favor and dump your collection of bulky slide trays and photo albums for a more modern and storage-friendly option that will not only save your images from fading and for future generations, but that will ensure that no one will ever dump them in the "to ditch" bin when you're not around anymore.