These pictures mean everything to me. My mother, holding me as a baby girl (check out those cheeks). My father, clutching his number three (me again), with my sister and brother stylin’ on either side. Now that both my parents are deceased, I wouldn’t trade these photos for the world.
When my mum died three years ago, my siblings and I shared many bittersweet evenings, rediscovering old family albums. Fading Polaroids, layered with dust and fingerprints. Dodgy haircuts, patterned suits, no filters. We laughed, we cried and we remembered simpler, happier times.
I have to say, I miss the days of going round to someone’s house and poring through their family albums. Nowadays, we’re all so #instasavvy, with millions of images shared online daily, it’s easy to take photos for granted.
As we snap away and share to multiple devices, we lose track of what we’ve photographed. More importantly, we lose touch with why we take these photos in the first place — to capture memories that last lifetimes.
Bring Back the Family Album
Did you know that 39% of UK parents have never even created a family album? I find that a slightly depressing statistic. That’s despite 71% of parents agreeing that having a family album was important to them growing up.
According to those surveyed, the main obstacles are having too many photos (20%), not having enough time (19%), or not knowing where to start (8%). research* commissioned by Western Digital for My Cloud Home.
It can feel pretty overwhelming trying to put a photo collection together in the digital age. Our images are scattered in so many places. Surveyed parents have an average of 4,470 images and videos on their PCs, mobiles, tablets and USBs (I’m pretty sure I have quadruple that amount!). Yet only 30% of parents regularly back up all their media. An even sadder fact is that 65% of parents who take photos remain stuck behind the camera. They are missing from the big picture of family life.
As part of their mission to Bring Back the Family Album, Western Digital introduced My Cloud Home. It’s a clever piece of kit that could revolutionise the way you store and share digital content.
Capturing More Memories with My Cloud Home
My Cloud Home plugs straight into your wi-fi router at home and acts as a central hub for saving and managing all your photos, video and other media. It’s quick and easy to set up, and you can access your content from anywhere, using the My Cloud Home mobile or desktop app, or via MyCloud.com.
My Cloud Home allows you to automatically backup all your uploads, keeping those memories safe, while freeing up space to capture more treasured moments.
Around 39% of parents surveyed don’t print any of their digital images, 43% don’t share them on social media, and 34% don’t send them to friends and family via email, WhatsApp or other tools. Imagine the billions of personal, memorable images simply going to waste!
My Cloud Home Storage: Simple, Safe, Sorted.
My Cloud Home makes it super simple to create that family album that’s been on your to-do list forever. With just a few clicks and swipes, you can share photos, videos or entire folders with friends and family.
I’ve always been quite rubbish at collating family albums for loved ones overseas. Thankfully, my blog has acted as a digital scrapbook, telling the story of my babes about town as they’ve grown over the years. Still, that’s only part of our story.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to be reviewing** the My Cloud Home storage device. I’ve been wanting a straightforward way to manage my content and My Cloud Home is such a smart solution. One of the first things I did after installing My Cloud Home was to start creating a family album, filled with old photos like the ones above. I want to share more of these moments with my children. They never had the privilege of meeting my dad (pictured here with my brother).
My Cloud Home encourages families to have a regular #ScreeningSunday to enjoy your photos and videos together. I think this is a wonderful idea. In next week’s post, I’ll tell you all about our first #ScreeningSunday and how we’re using My Cloud Home to capture and curate our digital memories.
Eager to learn more about My Cloud Home and how it could transform how you store and share family photos and videos? Visit the WEBSITE for more. Also come back next week for my detailed review!
*The survey was conducted by YouGov on behalf of Western Digital (between April 10-11 2018)
**I’m working in a paid relationship with My Cloud Home and BritMums on their Bring Back the Family Album campaign, encouraging families to share and experience their photos and video and to hold a regular #ScreeningSunday.
London Kids Weekend Scoop (Apr 27-29, 2018)
Wow, just seeing the few images you have shared here, I can see exactly why they are so precious to you. I’ve been making good use of the My Cloud Home and I absolutely love it. Fantastic bit of tech and so easy to use. I will be recommending it to friends.
Uju, i LOVE those retro pictures of you as a baby with your parents, it’s so nice to look back on all those old memories and especially as your children can see what they looked like now they are no longer here. The #ScreeningSunday is such a good idea to bring the family together to replay their joint history. I’m so glad that the My Cloud Home device is working for you.
LOVE how adorable you were as a baby. And check out your sister’s cool pose. I love that your family album on My Cloud Home also features some vintage pics.
Haha thanks Jen, I’m amazed by how my stubborn little face is just like my boys’ when they’re determined to get their own way (wonder where they got that from?!). My Cloud Home has made it so easy to pull up photos I’d even forgotten about! x
Thanks Nadine, they’re so precious to me because of course I can’t remember those specific times, and yet they still call up warm memories. Especially important for my kids as you say. I’m planning to make a tradition out of #ScreeningSunday, such a lovely thing to do with the whole family :-)
Hi John, thanks for your feedback. I’m amazed by this device! I’m not exactly techie, so I was a little hesitant at first, but right out of the box it’s so easy to use. Also the fact that it’s already backed up my Dropbox (literally took a couple of clicks and swipes), and I’ll be adding images from my social accounts soon. Brilliant product.
Uju, these are the cutest pics, I just want to squeeze your beautiful cheeks and your whole family are too beautiful. I still pour over family albums but do I have any of my own kids-nope. I’m going to look into My Cloud Home asap. What a gorgeous review, Vx
Oh my goodness – the cuteness is too much. Those edible cheeks are just calling to be pinched. Photo’s are such wonderful memories but I had a huge panic when I read this as I know how important backing up is but I still haven’t done it. Off to check out My Cloud Home now. xxx
Haha thanks Vicki, it’s such fun looking back on all these photos and more and more keep popping up in my My Cloud Home app. Really important to start creating those family albums again and sharing them with our loved ones. Those moments go by in the blink of an eye!
I know Nomita, I always blamed my hubby for the boys’ cheekiness, only to see my own baby photos lol! Please go now and backup your photos right now! Better yet, think about getting your family a My Cloud Home. ;-) That way it’s all sorted for you and you can focus on the fun stuff like taking way more photos than you need :-) x
What lovely memories to look back on – I love pouring through old photo albums and reliving memories
Hi Kara, thanks and yes, me too. It’s funny, we rarely stop to reflect do we, so busy capturing our daily lives and sharing willy nilly. Really pleased to have this device and app that’s made me stop, look and pay attention to so many forgotten moments x
Oh what lovely photos and memories to hold on to. I try to print photos whenever I can and we now have a few photo books of our favourite memories throughout the year. There is something so special about capturing a moment in time. Having a system where photos are automatically synced sounds awesome!
Well done Tin, you’re way ahead of the game! I’m always planning to print out photo books but never get around to it. However, now I’ve got My Cloud Home, I’m actually putting together a folder titled ‘Photo book’ that I can use to collate a regular print out for albums. It’s so wonderful looking through old photos :-)
Your family photographs are an important part of history!! I can’t wait for you to write the book detailing your parents work straddling the US Civil Rights movement and Nigeria. My gosh – the photos are not just important, they are so beautiful.
Sunday screenings – what a fantastic idea. Just love these pics Uju (how much cuteness!!) and I agree, the digital age has made it easier than ever to share online but not with our own loved ones. I’ll be back for your full review next week x
You got me crying again! So cute! Love the photos and agree that having actual photos and photoalbums is so important. We made a few photo book with Isabelle and Olivia whehthey were tiny as gifts, and they were the best gifts. Need to explore the my cloud family album, sounds amazing!
Aww photos do bring up so many emotions, don’t they? It’s sort of magical really. There’s nothing like flicking through an old family album, whether it’s a hard copy or a digital one. Glad you like the look of the My Cloud Home x