My wife and I have been working our way through the season one DVDs of Mad Men. Seems like each summer we pick one TV show praised by the critics that we never watched. The last episode struck a chord with me as the lead character talked about what photos mean to us.

Part of the plot for this episode was on developing an ad campaign for the new Kodak Carousel projector. In his presentation to the clients he showed photos of himself, his wife and kids. And while doing that talked about the powerful feelings these photos evoke in us, and how they can make us "ache" to go back to that time.

That comment had special meaning to me. I've created a collection of over 50,000 photos that I go through on a sometimes daily basis. These are what I use when building programs to teach, or for other projects our company does. And every time I go through those, I see my kids, now 18 and 16, at various stages of their lives. Vacations, birthdays, school events, and just silly moments at home. It's fun, but also a bit wistful. Those moments are gone, never to return. And I'm so glad to have them in photos.

Which brings me to my point. Almost everyone has family photos. And I'll bet that more than a few of those photos have tremendous meaning to you. Don't take them for granted. If they're not already digital, digitize them. Scan or simply photograph them with your digital camera. Create a digital family archive of the most important ones, and then duplicate it. Store a copy at work, or in a safe deposit box, and send copies to other members of your family. Remember, those images are a treasure, and will never happen again.