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Not about to throw his back out.With the holiday season coming up, many of us become nostalgic with the sights, smells, and sounds of relatives and good times past and present. Some of us turn to photographs to settle these hungry feelings, others slides, others old film reels. The main problem in this endeavor, though, comes when you try to actually find the photos you're thinking of. I know, in my house, we have a whole chest of drawers dedicated to, quite simply, thousands of developed 35mm film photos. There is no filing system. There is no Dewey decimal. It's pretty much hit or miss.

Some relish in this chaotic mess, preferring to stumble across images as they come. But the danger of such a way comes if the house were to be struck by fire, flood, or any other natural disaster. My dad, strong as he is, would never be able to lift the entire drawer out of the house. I have images of my family clutching crumpled photographs in our hands as we run naked into the front yard, our roof ablaze.

Thank goodness for Life Preserver. The company, founded by Nick Dazé and James Myers, takes on the herculean task of taking your old, busted photos, film, and slides and transferring them to a digital medium. They also offer retouching and color correction for any photos that might have already been damaged. Providing instant categorization and "shareability" of family history that would otherwise sit stale in a closet, Life Preserver could be the perfect Christmas gift for an aging relative.

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