"That's scary," Harding said. "We're family members here, too, and we understand your pictures are priceless and irreplaceable. We make sure every single photo is taken care of."

As for actually getting around to digitizing and preserving your images, Harding said the worry is if you don't do it, no one else will. She said she has already misplaced several of her own photos through various moves and regrets the loss.

From her perspective, although it can be time-consuming to get started on organizing your pictures and videos, the time is worth it. Plus, once converted to a digital format and burned onto a DVD, pictures and videos can be shared with family and friends.

The sharing is nice, because you'll always be guaranteed a second copy of your images is floating around, said Harding. And then you don't have to worry if a disaster, such as fire, were to hit your home.

Nilsson agrees.

"If there's one thing people consider most precious, it's those memories, it's those pictures," he said. "It's a way of preserving part of our lives, or at least having some way to trigger memories. People feel as if they have lost something profound if they have lost their photo albums."

For more information on Pictureline, log on to www.pictureline.com. Larsen Digital Services can be found at, www.slidescanning.com, while MotoPhoto's Web site is www.motophoto.com.

E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com