I need to do this with the giant pile of Polaroids I found in my dad's closet. For me it hasn't been any technical or logistical barrier, just an emotional one. I know I need to do it before something happens to them that makes me regret waiting, but I just haven't had it in me yet even after two years.

> I bought a heavy-duty slide scanner to help me process the images. It’s a Canon CanoScan 9000F. I like it, in case you’re shopping for an affordable unit; in particular, I do not loathe the built-in software, which sets it apart from other scanners I’ve used.

I hope this is not unwelcome as it is admittedly tangential to the actual topic of this post, but this line makes me want to throw out an unsolicited recommendation for VueScan from Hamrick Software: https://www.hamrick.com/

I am not affiliated with them in any way aside from being an extremely happy customer. Easily the most value I've ever gotten out of a piece of shareware, perpetually licensed, supporting Windows, Mac, and Linux. I got into it to revive a '90s scanner whose software wouldn't work at all on modern computers, and I've come to prefer it over all OEM software even on my newer gear. Truly the great equalizer that makes the hardware features the only things which matter.

I currently use it with a Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL (when I want CCD+CCFL scanning and/or large-format scanning) and an Epson PerfectionV700 (when I want CMOS+LED scanning). It supports the film/transparency scanning features of both if you have the appropriate expansion lids. Here's a random screenshot from my shots folder, not of transparency scanning but it's what I have on me. It does have a lot of built-in cleanup options which I use with about a 50:50 mix of cleanup in Photoshop CS3. I especially like its built-in debayering https://i.imgur.com/xfBwZq8.png

> Include the photographer. I have few pictures of my father, because he was always the guy behind the camera. When he did ask someone to take a picture it was always posed, such as “Mom and Pop standing in front of the Grand Canyon.”

In my experience as a frequent traveler of the US West, it's rare now to even be asked. For me probably fewer than five times. I don't know if people these days feel uncomfortable asking due to how damaged and low-trust society has become thanks to those who need us all to hate each other so they can stay in charge, or if people have just been out of the habit for so long that they never had that example and thus don't even think of it.

I've started keeping an eye out for groups of people posing for photographs, especially when they are visibly families vacationing with kids, and I will ask them if they want a group shot if I read them as amenable to it. Some people say no, even once in a while aggressively so, but the acceptance rate is incredibly high and it makes me happy to be able to give them those memories. It probably helps that I am visibly non-threatening in a privileged way that society does-but-should-not enable, and that I'm usually carrying a chonky mirrorless camera on a strap so people are less likely to think I'd steal their phone lol

> Even though I spent much of my childhood writing letters, there is only one photo of me with a pen in my hand — and that was taken by a friend at summer camp. Yet my friends and family all recall me with a book or pen within reach. My father never captured that essential part of who I was.

It's interesting to see the way the human mind works here. We take photos on vacations and of unique events due to their novelty making them feel like something that can't be re-experienced, and we don't photograph the day-to-day activities because they are so familiar to us while we're in those stages of our lives. Turns out it's the other way around: the Grand Canyon will always be there, and the people won't :/

> Crop photos closely. My father took a lot of photos of “Mom in front of a pretty vista” but in the long run I care more about Mom’s expression than the expanse of mountains in the background. Thanks to iPhoto I can zoom in, but a lot of detail is lost.

These days when we're all digital and not paying per roll of film, I take both. Zoom with your feet. It doesn't have to become an overwhelming number of photos — just two. Tying back to my earlier comment, when I offer to take a photo for people I usually tell them I'm going to take one of the scene and then walk forward and take one more. I did this just two weeks ago for a very appreciative family at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History at Kirtland AFB. One wide landscape shot of them where you can read the building façade and tell where they were, and one tight portrait shot of just them :)