Less is plenty in family photo albums

We recently returned from a trip to Miami for the wedding of our son, Bret Lehmer, and Claudia Vilato.

It was a great trip. Lots of sightseeing, terrific food, new friends, close family, a wonderful ceremony and reception. And photos. Lots of photos.

I took several dozen myself, including this one of the newlyweds. My daughter-in-law took pictures. So did my daughter, brother-in-law and dozens of other people whose names I do not recall. That’s not counting the three professional photographers who were hired to document the occasion. I’ll bet they took thousands.

That’s the way it is in this digital age, where costly film and slow processing of the not-so-distant past have been mostly replaced by relatively inexpensive and easily manipulated pixels. It can be overwhelming.  

Truth is, less is more when it comes to saving photos. More accurately, less is enough.

Consider this: If you added just one photo a week to an album over the course of a 75-year lifetime, that’s 3,900 photos. Sure, your family loves you, but do you really think your great-grandchildren want to spend their time wading through all that?

Culling photos is a cruel, but necessary, task. Set up your own limits and stick to them. Get rid of any photos that you can’t tie to a specific memory or story. Document those stories and keep them with the pictures. If you can’t bear to part with them, pass them on to someone who may have an interest in them.

Sally Jacobs, aka The Practical Archivist, has some tips on how to cull your photo collection and how to preserve them. If you have a bunch of old photos that you’re curious about, here are some tips on how to date old photos.

Have you ever wondered why older wedding portraits show the bride standing while the groom sits? Here are some possible explanations for this phenomenon.

Larry Lehmer is a personal biographer who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or e-mail him.

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