Many people are very
interested in the everyday objects of past eras, who owned the item,
how the object was used or why it was important to
the family. These items are known as memorabilia, antiques or family
heirlooms. A photo combined with a brief descriptive history of each
object will be interesting to your children and the generations to come.
So where does insurance enter the picture?
Most of these items will be found somewhere in your home in a drawer,
book, box or hanging on a wall. Some of these items may be very valuable
and should be insured against loss from theft or natural disaster.
I’m going to suggest that you can do both – catalogue
and describe each item for posterity and use the same documentation
for insurance
purposes.
What You Will Need
1. ProMedia Manager Software
2. Digital camera
3. Proper lighting
4. Camera Tripod – helpful but not necessary
5. Video camera (optional) How to Catalogue and Describe Your Treasures
This does not have to be hard and you don’t have
to do it all in one day.
Just take photos and catalogue the contents of one room at a time.
1. Start with the big or complete view. Stand in the center of the room
and take several photos as you rotate in a circle until you have captured
the whole room.
2. You could make a panorama if you use a tripod and overlap each
photo. This will provide a reference as to what items were in
the room and the
condition of the room for insurance purposes. This perspective may
help you get a fair value from the insurance company in the event
of a loss.
a. Use a digital camera to take still photos. If you are in a hurry,
consider using the little movie mode and narrate or describe
the objects as you slowly pan around the room.
b. Use a video camera to pan and narrate. Note: Using a
video camera will require much more hard drive space and
will be less convenient
and easy to use.
3. Take photos of each object.
a. Take photos from different angles. This will be very helpful if
the object is small such as a ceramic statute, plate or
other detailed object.
b. Group similar objects such as a coin or stamp collections.
c. Take photos of any identifying markings such as the
manufactures’ stamp,
artists signature etc.
d. Use the micro lens on your camera or take detailed close
ups. This is very helpful when you take photos of the serial
and model number
for electronic devices like TVs, computers, DVD players
and stereos. Insurance
adjustors will want a model or serial number when determining
what to replace.
4. Identify each item. This is where ProMedia software comes in handy.
a. Import each photo into an appropriate collection.
b. Enter a short caption of the item.
c. Type in a brief description and possibly an approximate
value. Add the purchase date if you can remember or have
a receipt. You can also
enter the serial number if you could not easily take
a photo.
d. The program will automatically add the date the photo
was taken as additional documentation.
5. Create a collection for each room or group of items
to make organization and storage of the contents
easier.
6. Use the program to create a Gift CD/DVD of all
your household items.
7. Store copies in a safe place not on your premises,
like a bank vault or home of a relative.
Additional Suggestions.
1. Proper lighting is essential to clearly demonstrate the condition
of the item.
2. Do not use flash since it will over expose parts of the photo if you
are taking closeups such as a serial number.
3. Use a table with overhead lighting to take photos of smaller objects.
4. If your camera has a macro lens use it to get sharp photos of serial
numbers and other identifying markings.
5. In ProMedia, use the print option, “4 thumbnails with all information”
This will
give you a printout for reference purposes. The printout will
contain the captions, first four lines of description, date and even
the
GPS coordinates of the location if you enter them. 
One final question. Do you think your grandchildren will recognize
your computer the same as you view your great grandfather’s Model “T” Ford?
|
