Taking family pictures with you - RV-Dreams Community Forum

victorianlady51 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Taking family pictures with you

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Actually, we have found a space for a few small picture frames in every RV that we have owned.

We've scaned some of our photos or took pictures of some with our digital camera. All digital photos are on both of our computers and also have been saved on an external backup hard drive.

We have also put many of the photos on CDs and flash drives and have given them to our kids for safe keeping in case anything should happen to our RV or it's contents.

Some of the photos that we could not bring with us or copy that are in old photo albums are at one of our kids house, because that's where they'll end up someday anyway.

Hope this helps,

Jim

Dog Folks · RV-Dreams Family Member

We scanned all of them into our computer and a digital picture frame. The frame had a slide show feature so we see all our pictures more than when we were in the house!

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

X2 - Digital picture frame and flash drive

Keep original photos in storage or safe deposit box along with another flash drive containing the digital copies.

K & E · RV-Dreams Family Member

I scanned all of our pictures and have saved them to my computer and an external hard drive. I also copied them to an external hard drive for each of my children so there are multiple copies in case something would happen to one of the hard drives. Then I threw away all the paper copies of the pictures except for a few that are in frames in the fifth wheel. Lots of people thought I was crazy to throw them away, but I look at them on my computer screen saver and digital picture frame all the time. I didn't foresee a time I would actually look at the pictures themselves again so I tossed them. I'm sure you'll figure out what will work best for you!!

victorianlady51 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yeah - it's been a good day! You all answered a question I was wondering about - so I'm going to begin the new year scanning! My hubby and I have the 5th wheel bug ---- we went through a huge closet today and purged a LOT! These pictures will be given to the kids this year too! We're beginning our assent to rv freedom

janni · RV-Dreams Family Member

I had a half a dozen of those large Rubbermaid tubs full of stuff. I found a flatbed scanner, scanned several pictures at a time, brought them up in Photoshop, and then cropped them out into separate jpgs. I also did this with my old newspaper articles, obits, parents death certificates(dont ask me why), and anything else I wanted to keep or just couldn't see throwing out. I burned cd's for my kids and have others stored in safety deposit box. Pics are on digital frame now and my niece(the family scrapbook expert) got all those tubs. My Sis and I are the only ones left of our immediate family and have we had fun with those pictures ;)

Dave Buck · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a digital frame also. Change pictures from time to time so the pictures don't get old.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

But don't have your only copy in the cloud. There have been too many cases of data loss to trust them 100% with your important files.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 1st of January 2013 02:59:52 PM

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

When we were at the rally in Harrisburg OR, one couple with a MH had their overhead TV running their family pics, just like a digital picture frame, only much larger! I thought that was a great idea.
We will be storing many of our photos long term due to the fact that I've been an avid scrapbooker for well over a decade now and I can fill 4 bookshelves with my scrapbooks that cover more than 20 years of our lives together. I'm not ready to hand those over to my daughter, they don't have the room in their small apartment so we'll pay for a small storage room for now.

janieD · RV-Dreams Family Member

Digitizing them is great and what we did and now as a back up I am storing them in the cloud. That way i can also share them with others if I need to. Just started that process.

DorisandDave · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have started scanning to computer. Ditto what Bill said. I save them on my personal cloud (external hard drive) and also plan to use an online backup service. I'm slowly going through them, sorting and copying to discs for my kids and some to my siblings. So, I have multiple saves - hard drive onsite, online backup and discs to the kids. Then I plan on pulling a "K & E" and throwing out the originals.

And in line with that, I am in the process of scanning copies of important papers on my external drive, the online backup, disc kept offsite and on a thumb drive in my purse. But I won't throw those originals out! disbelief

We also have some framed pictures in the 5er and a digital frame with a slide show.

Doris

janieD · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill's right, the cloud is just a back up so if the computer and other devises, dvds etc. fail there is still hopefully another copy out there.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

WestWardHo wrote:
Anyone have a scanner recommendation, we have lots to scan, & our recently purchased HP scanner, printer is agonizingly slow & awkward to use?

The NeatReceipts desktop doesn't say anything about photographs. Ideally, what we purchase will hit the road with us,so space is a consideration.

Thanks,
Sherry

I doubt that my comment will help you, as Jo and I have an "all-in-one" unit by Epson. Ours is the Epson Artisan 835, which is a scanner (both flat-bed and sheet feeder), printer (good for photos with the pigment ink), copier, fax, and photo. With all the things we get involved with, even though it is fairly large, it works well for us, plus, it is wireless.

We changed over to Epson several years ago from HP because of the ink. It is less likely to run than a lot of the other inks, which is important for me with printing photos.

The photo below shows our Epson in what is called the "appliance bay" of the kitchen cabinetry. There is an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper lying on the scanner, which will give you some idea of the size.

Terry

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Wednesday 2nd of January 2013 02:56:03 PM

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Anyone have a scanner recommendation, we have lots to scan, & our recently purchased HP scanner, printer is agonizingly slow & awkward to use?

The NeatReceipts desktop doesn't say anything about photographs. Ideally, what we purchase will hit the road with us,so space is a consideration.

Thanks,
Sherry

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have all our cherished photos on each of our primary computers, multiple hard drive back-ups, synced to the Cloud (iCloud and/or Dropbox) as well as to all our mobile gadgets. Ones we want to share with the public, we also upload to Flickr (synced through iPhoto).

Our iPads made fabulous mobile computing devices for us.. as well as digital photo frames. And if we're visiting with someone who has AppleTV, we can also mirror them onto a full size TV screen to share with others. I keep multiple albums in Apple's photo app so that we can quickly show off of our best travel photos, pics of our bus, pics from Burning Man, etc.

For scanning, we just got a DoxieOne that claims to handle photos (as well as receipts, contact cards, etc.) well. We have not yet hooked it up to see how it works, so can't make a recommendation for it yet.

- Cherie

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have been really happy with Epson products in the past. Don't want something that big Terry (but thanks for you input) so keep sending suggestions of products/brands our Forum members are enjoying.

Jwar · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have been looking at a ton of MH's and was thinking there are just to many mirrors ( Im 72 and I have seen myself to much as it is LOL ). I may remove one of the larger mirrors and replace it with lexan or some type of clear plastic, double tape a border and double tape the pics, then use several plastic mirror fasteners to secure it. I have never done it, just a thought as I have several panagraphic photos of group shots I dont want to toss.

john

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did the Digital picture frame at the sticks and bricks so we just transfered it to the Rv went we went fulltime. Now I just update it as we travel. Perfect for us.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

All My Family pictures are easy to access........I can Stop at any U.S Post office and there displayed there!!!!!..........LOL

rvingft · RV-Dreams Family Member

I scanned many boxes of old family photos and save all my pics in the Cloud (Picasa and/or Google).

Some of the old pics and new digital pics I put together on a thumb drive at Christmas and gave to my Mom with a digital picture frame. Although she is not technical, all she had to do was plug in the frame and push "ON". Being able to see old OLD family pictures along with more current ones I pulled off Facebook (which she will NOT do) gave her, in her words "the BEST Christmas present EVER!" Not sure what I will come up with this year.

We also picked up some 4x6 stickers that look like picture frames. You place the print behind the sticker/clear plastic and it LOOKS like there is a framed picture displayed.

Here is a link to the store located in Elkhart, Indiana where we purchased our RV Photo Frames.

http://www.rvpartssupplier.com/product-p/172402.htm

Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 12th of January 2013 05:51:26 PM

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lucky Mike wrote:
All My Family pictures are easy to access........I can Stop at any U.S Post office and there displayed there!!!!!..........LOL

You crack me up Mike!!! Don't ever stop biggrin

We are just trying to decide how to scan all ours onto a hard drive, we have a huge plastic tub full of 25 yrs of photos, I really want to keep the memories, but it's such a pain in the butt scanning thousands of pics one at a time! I know it has to be done, is this the only way to do it?

Huggs Kim x

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

You can go to good photography stores and many will have a service where they scan and save to a disk. However, a store here in Oklahoma City (Bedford's Photography) charges $1.00 per if done in the lab. They apparently have a kiosk, where one can scan them for $.39 per.

We've used Epson scanners in the past and when one puts in up to 4 photos, you have the option of highlighting or selecting each in turn to save on the hard drive. One would still have to do it for each photo, but at least one wouldn't have to remove each photo, one at a time, to insert another photo, one at a time.

I guess a lot would depend on one's patience to be able to sit and scan photos for long periods of time. We had a whole bunch of photos that I considered scanning, but after a while, I decided that I really didn't need them that much. I still rely on my memory for events and people in the past and when I can no longer remember, it won't matter. Our kids didn't know most of our ancestors, so they have no interest at all in them. So, I gave our photos to my sister.

Terry

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

rvingft wrote:
I scanned many boxes of old family photos and save all my pics in the Cloud (Picasa and/or Google).

Some of the old pics and new digital pics I put together on a thumb drive at Christmas and gave to my Mom with a digital picture frame. Although she is not technical, all she had to do was plug in the frame and push "ON". Being able to see old OLD family pictures along with more current ones I pulled off Facebook (which she will NOT do) gave her, in her words "the BEST Christmas present EVER!" Not sure what I will come up with this year.

We also picked up some 4x6 stickers that look like picture frames. You place the print behind the sticker/clear plastic and it LOOKS like there is a framed picture displayed.

Here is a link to the store located in Elkhart, Indiana where we purchased our RV Photo Frames.

http://www.rvpartssupplier.com/product-p/172402.htm
Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 12th of January 2013 05:51:26 PM

Thanx for that link, I will be ordering some of those for sure!! Jay has been scanning in pictures for the last two weeks, mainly just weekends, but he is determined not to throw any away! I am not as bothered about any pictures older than immediate family, but he is doing the work so I just keep my thoughts to myself, well I try!! We will definitely be getting a digital photo frame, I think it's the only way in an RV to have that many photos on display.

Northwoods Mary · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thanks for all the great tips! We're getting ready to go full time but, like others, are finding there's a lot to do first to make informed choices about purchases and to get everything we plan to keep organized and reduced to one storage unit. If u have Apple stuff, I am a big fan of Apple TV - then you can use your biggest screen to show anything you have stored in your computer, ipad or phone, or in a Cloud. (Course you can also use it to get Netflix, etc. and it's small! We just got ours and I'm impressed! A question I have is what method others use to keep all your devices online? Hat is most economical and delivers the best coverage?
Thanks for any suggestions!

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi mary!! for internet there are a few threads.....I personally use milinicom....others use there cell provider or park Wifi, I guess it depends on usage.

hopefully a few will chime in

Northwoods Mary · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thanks Mike! We plan to do a lot of boon docking (sp?) so I don't want to rely on wi fi. I also just gor an ipad but didn't get the 4G built in because I'm already paying a cell phone fee and it seemed a hot spot through that would be cheaper. Now that our carrier (Verizon) is getting rid of unlimited data plans, though, I wondered if satellite would be better. I've also heard cell coverage is unreliable in Canada - that's even true in some remote areas around here. Thanks again!

PS Not sure what million icon is. I will google it!

Northwoods Mary · RV-Dreams Community Member

Mike, looks like "milinicom" was auto populated to "million icon". Sorry.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Milinicom is basiclly a wireless internet service that uses verizon alot.......they are a no contract system.....canada is tough because of the fees once you cross the border.

Northwoods Mary · RV-Dreams Community Member

Mike, checked out Millenicom. Looks like its your broadband provider....like Verizon....without the contract. Next time I'll check first.

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

For WiFi, we use a thing called WiFi ranger, it's a unit you buy outright, so no monthly fees which we love! It is a booster basically, we are supposed to get free WiFi in the camp we are staying in, but it's pretty useless with all the trees around and so many others using it too. If it rains, gets windy or just when it wants too, it goes down! The WiFi ranger has never let us down, no matter how faint the camp WiFi gets, It is light enough that you can attach it to your tv antenna, or just have it sat in the front of the RV.

Before we got the Ranger, we got a sprint hotspot from our carrier, it;s $50.00 a month, since we got the ranger we have never had to turn the hotspot on, unfortunately, it's on a 2 yr contract so $50 a month pretty much wasted, we will pay off the contract as soon as we get around to it. We are thinking of going with the Walmart phone plan, anyone else use this? how is the coverage for T Mobile?

RVKevi · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you are talking about WalMart's Straight Talk, we got their unlimited talk, text & web plan about a month ago and are very satisfied with it. We got http://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Huawei-Ascend-Y-Cell-Phone/21997708 You have to be careful which phone you buy, because that is what determines who the carrier really is. The phone we got is powered by Verizon, so we get coverage through them. But with some of the phones, they are powered through someone else, maybe Sprint? I'm not sure because we wanted that was Verizon. Try to talk to a sales person who knows something about it.