Fires destroyed your family photos. Here are some ways to restore those memories
Survivors of the Los Angeles-area fires have lost significant parts of their lives to this disaster, including homes, livelihoods, community and, in some cases, loved ones. But replacing lost photos — mementos of cherished family, friends and places— may be easier than it seems, according to experts.
"While photos can't replace what's lost, they can preserve the essence of what those things meant," said Vanessa Quigley, co-founder of Chatbooks, an online photo book company. "A single photo can bring back the feeling of home, the memory of a loved one or a moment that shaped your life."
Several online photo companies are offering special deals for victims of the Los Angeles fires.
How to recover lost print photos
Even though printed photos in old albums or those tucked away in a keepsake box might not be recoverable, there are ways to get back a version of your lost images through digital sources.
One method is crowd sourcing or asking friends, family, neighbors and teachers for pictures they've taken so you can rebuild your photo collection.
For example, if you lost your photo album that contained your wedding photos, you can get in touch with your wedding photographer and ask for digital copies. You can also reach out to your wedding guests to ask for copies of photos they took on that day, said Lee Reams, founder of Kwillt, a crowd sourcing digital scrapbook company.
You might not get back a specific photo that you lost, but Reams said it can be a fun and even healing experience to see other people's viewpoint of the day or event.
Collecting those photos can be as easy as sharing images via text or email. There are also online platforms where you can share these photos without relying on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram. Ream's company Kwillt allows users to create specific "patches" connected to an event or person and invite people to upload photos accompanied by a written memory. Kwillt is currently offering fire survivors free access to the online platform with the code "MEMORY."
Photos can also be recovered through older electronic devices like smartphones, computers and external hard drives. You might even have a couple CDs or older SD cards with copies of family photos on them.
Read more: Lose your essential documents in the L.A. fires? Here's how you can replace them
Companies like DriveSavers can salvage and collect photos and data from digital devices that have been damaged, crashed or mechanically failed. DriveSavers can even recover data contained in computers that have been melted in a fire as long as the computer's hard drive hasn't had contact with the flames.
The website details how you can assess whether data might be recoverable from a damaged device after a fire.
Los Angeles-area fire survivors can get free data recovery help from DriveSavers, with a limit of one device per household, said Alex Hagan, chief executive of the company.
You can start the process by calling DriveSavers at 800-440-1904 to arrange to send your damaged device to the company with a prepaid FedEx label. Once the data is recovered, Hagan said you'll be mailed a new external hard drive containing all your information.
If you're currently living in temporary housing, the company can hold onto the new external hard drive for a couple of months but you'll need to consult with a DriveSavers team member first.
How to turn recovered digital images to print photos
If you have a selection of digital photos you want to convert to prints, several online services allow you to upload the images and have the printed versions shipped to you. Some online photo print providers include:
CVS Pharmacy, some locations have free same-day pickup. Call ahead to see if that service is available at your location.
A majority of these services also allow you to create albums or items such as cards, mugs or calendars with the photos you upload. Chatbooks is an online company that offers custom photo books and it's currently offering free photo prints to Los Angeles-area fire victims. To get started with the free service email support@chatbooks.com.
Protect your photos by making several backup copies
The best way to make digital backup copies of your older print photos is to scan them.
It can feel like a huge undertaking to scan every family photo that's in the box in your garage, but Quigley said you can tackle the project in segments until you have scanned them all.
You can scan photos by buying an inexpensive flatbed scanner or use an app on your smartphone such as HP Smart.
However you decide to scan your photos, make sure you save it as a "JPG or JPEG" file at a high resolution. Companies that print digital photos require that the files be "JPG or JPEG." You want the file to be high resolution so you can have the flexibility of printing the photo in any size without the image becoming distorted.
If you don't have the time to digitize your photo collection, there are online companies that can do it for you, including Legacybox.
Read more: L.A. wildfire resource guide: How to stay safe, what to do and how to help
Once you have your digital photos, Hagan recommends you use the "3, 2, 1" strategy of saving your images: make three copies, store two copies in different types of devices or storage media such as a computer, hard drive or USB and save one copy in an off-site location such as Google, Dropbox or iCloud.
You can take it a step further by mailing another copy of your stored images on a hard drive, USB or CD to a trusted family member out of state for safe keeping.
Another option is to place your digital photos in a device that is locked in a safe deposit box. These boxes can hold important documents, family keepsakes, pictures and other important items, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Experts caution against relying solely on social media to store your photos because online companies can go out of business, services can become limited and exporting photos from these sites don't always reproduce high-quality images.
Make backing up your photos a weekly habit
If you have image files on a device like your computer or phone, Hagan suggests you make sure those photos are backed up on a cloud storage or external hard drive at least once a month.
As you continue to take photos, make it a habit of saving the digital files once a week or once a month.
Quigley calls it her "Sunday select," the practice of going through her smartphone camera roll from that past week and clearing out the clutter every Sunday evening and saving only the best image.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
