September is Save Your Photos month and how timely that is. With the recent weather catastrophes across the United States, thousands of families are dealing with great loss of life and property. Among their precious losses are likely to be their family pictures. Though some pictures can be salvaged from water damage, fire makes it nearly impossible. If you want to preserve and save your photos against catastrophe or turn your pictures and family heirlooms into stories to be shared, then today’s topic of Ponga will interest you.
Save Your Photos with Ponga
From the website it says “Ponga quickly and easily organizes your pictures for you, then gives you a fun way to use them to privately share stories with family and friends.”
Ponga, a new software service available at ponga.com, lets you preserve, share, and turn any image into a conversation. They start by making a working copy of the image in any file size of PNG, JPG, or TIF format. The original image, full size, and complete with metadata is put into archival storage. They do not down-size or modify it. They only preserve and protect it.
Ponga believes protecting your original files is as important as your stories. [For more on their policies, see Can I get my stuff back.]
The image file you bring into Ponga doesn’t even have to be a photograph. Members like Victoria have shown us how transformative Ponga can be. Victoria’s “Storyboards” collect multiple photographs and documents into a single Ponga picture, then use them to ground a conversation with their extended cousins overseas. Her “Pongaports” turn printed photo book albums into interactive Ponga albums!
Victoria’s story of immigration is one of the many narratives emerging from photographs brought into Ponga today. Tales of heroism, persistence, and wonder are now finding their way into interactive, digital archives shared privately across geography, generations, and time. Take a look at this example below.
It’s Save Your Photos Month
September is Save Your Photos month. Right now, you can learn from professionals working to save photos from the fires, floods, and the decay of time. Take a moment to explore the extraordinary array of free courses available during Save Your Photos Month at saveyourphotos.org.
As a co-sponsor of Save Your Photos Month, Ponga is offering a special price bundle that includes a discount on the annual plan for Ponga plus a Private Zoomin’ Pod to help you get your family or private group crowdsourcing your stories on Ponga. Visit Ponga.com/SaveYourPhotos to learn more and don’t let this time pass by to preserve, protect, and share your precious family photos.
A special thanks to Barbara Tien of Ponga who wrote this article for The Genealogy Reporter blog.
Hello, Amie.
Great post and interesting information.
thanks for sharing this information.
I think this application incredible.
I find it very practical as well as very interactive
Photos are protected forever.
Thank you!
Amy, thank you so much for your information on preserving photographs. It has been on my mind also this past year. I was excited to learn about Ponga (even though the special is over) and loved the interactive demonstration. My father passed away last year, and I can’t wait to learn how to utilize their tools and compile some of his sources and keepsakes to honor his amazing accomplishments.
Raelene
Ms. Tennant,
We spoke before about you doing a presentation for Dayton Area Mensa on Native American genealogy at our annual event called a Regional Gathering, or RG.
Unfortunately the pandemic made that impossible.
We are now planning our next RG, an in-person event, for March 25-27, 2021. The RG is to be held at the Doubletree Hotel at 300 Prestige Place, Miamisburg, Ohio, 45342.
I would really like to have you present the program you had planned for the RG that didn’t happen, at the upcoming RG.
My contact information is: Gwen Raab, 937-681-7317, or 2gwenraab@gmail.com.
Please let me know if you are willing/able to present your program at our event.
Sincerely,
Gwen Raab, Program Co-chair
Dayton Area Mensa