5 Ways to Share Photos and Memories with Aging Parents
Older people love telling stories and there are so many benefits to it for both them and us. For them, it’s a beautiful way to share and pass on their legacy, but it can also help strengthen their memories, help them connect with the people around them, and help counter loneliness. For us, listening, asking questions, and helping to document those stories give us an opportunity to connect with our loved ones on a whole new level and pass on our family stories.
Photos can be a powerful way to bring those stories to life. However, it can be challenging to figure out how to share and give aging parents access to the photos and memories they love most. For the digital photos, they may not have devices to view them or the technical know-how to use them. For the printed photos, they may not have the physical ability to hold albums or even photos.
The best advice I have for conquering this challenge is to lean into technology.
What do I mean by that? The first step is digitizing the memories by sorting through and scanning your loved one’s favorite photos. While this can seem like a big task if they have a large collection, commit to progress over perfection. Start with 1 box or a favorite album and do a quick sort identifying the best photos. You don’t have to sort through the whole collection to start sharing. Start with a favorite memory. I promise they’ll love whatever you do.
Once you’ve digitized a set of photos, here are 5 ways that you can share them:
1. A Digital Photo Frame that connects
If you haven’t heard of a WiFi digital photo frame, let’s catch you up! My favorite brand is Nixplay. This ain’t your mama’s digital photo frame.
These digital frames allow you to upload and add photos via an app on your phone, which makes them an amazing gift for aging parents who find it difficult to hold an album. They can just sit back and watch. The frame allows you to add photos into playlists in whatever theme you want (e.g. old family photos, photos of grandchildren, travel photos, etc.) or you can mix it up. The frame has a sensor that turns it on and off automatically and settings that put it to sleep at night.
2. Create a digital photo album highlighting the generations
Selecting photos is the hardest part of a photo project. So again, progress over perfection. One type of album that we like to create at CYP is called the Story of Us album. The Story of Us is a memory book designed to capture a snapshot of your family through the generations in photos and memories. It’s not designed to capture every pic that was ever taken, which makes it more manageable for both the creator and the person enjoying it. These books can be beautifully bound and printed, making awesome conversation and story starters.
There are several easy-to-use online sites to help you create digital photo albums quickly and easily. Mpix.com and Mixbook.com are 2 sites that I think produce great quality digital books. Another option is finding a photo management professional that will create a beautiful keepsake album for you. The beauty of a digital album is that you can print as many copies as your family needs to share the love.
3. Make a slideshow to make them feel special
While slideshows are fun for events, you don’t need to wait for a celebration to create a slideshow. We are increasingly enjoying using our screens for doing life and having the ability to watch and share memories on a screen makes it great for our aging family and friends. Think about how special it would make someone feel if you surprised them with a slideshow all about them. It could be as simple as finding your favorite pics of that person through the years, a series of family heritage photos, or pics of a special time you shared together. You can create the slideshow using a slideshow program such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, an app on your phone, or a software program.
At Capture Your Photos, we create something we call the ‘mini’, which is a short slideshow using just 1 song and about 40 photos that can easily be shared online. I love them because they are super easy to create, fun to share, and oh so very sweet.
A word of caution, if you want to post a slideshow with music on social media, you’ll need to choose music that is not copyrighted or it will be blocked. Search ‘royalty free music’ to find options that can be used online if you want to post it publicly.
4. Video Playbook
Do you have old home movies that are stuck on VHS or videotapes from camcorders, DVDs, or film reels? First step…run to get them converted to an mp4 computer format (you can watch this on any of your screens) so you can both preserve and enjoy them again.
But then…check out the Video Playbook. Video Playbooks are awesome for aging loved ones because all they have to do is open it to enjoy and relive the memories. My favorite is from photoflashdrive.com. You load your digitized old or new videos (mp4 formatted) onto the playbook, then when you open it, your memories automatically start playing. They have beautiful customizable covers and you can update the videos as often as you want.
5. Online Family Gallery
For those aging loved ones that are a little tech savvy (emphasis on ‘little’) and have a smartphone or computer, creating a gallery of photos in an online cloud site where they can easily click on an app or link and see their memories, can be an awesome way to share photos, especially when you want to share with several family members. I’ve done this with all sides of my family. It’s easy and no creativity is required.
I like the Lifetime plan with pCloud.com because you pay for it once (no annual fee), it’s really reasonable, and there are no limits on videos. You can also set it up to look like your own family website. I’ve also used SmugMug, OneDrive, and Dropbox. All of these options allow you to store and get back original photos, unlike some of the other photo sharing cloud sites. It’s important to read the fine print and know what you are getting when you choose a cloud site to share your memories.
Inviting your aging loved ones to share stories is a beautiful way to pass on your family legacy, and photos and videos are a powerful way to make the stories come alive. Don’t wait to share that joy.
Let us know how we can help.
Overwhelmed with your photo mess? Getting started organizing your photos can be the hardest part! Grab our FREE GETTING STARTED GUIDE that includes tips for how to create a plan, teaches you how to take inventory of your collection, and provides the form to do it.
Holly Corbid is the Founder/Owner of Capture Your Photos, where we help you to organize, preserve, and share your lifetime of memories. Helping you touch hearts with your photos is our passion. We specialize in digital photo organization and work remotely with clients all over the country.
Find us at www.captureyourphotos.com or contact us here.