Personal digital photo accomplishment!
I got something huge off my shoulders this weekend.
I am really bad at downloading personal pictures and then doing nothing with them. When we had Noah, I started off really well downloading and then ordering pictures through Snapfish. Once Maia came along, I started to slack. Granted, I was doubly busier, but I still shouldn't have slacked so much. I don't have a single print from my small digital camera (yes, this is coming from me, a professional photographer! . . . eek!) of Maia except for a few from the day she was born - she is almost 18 months old now - how embarrassing.
So this weekend I spent about 10 hours (yes, 10 hours!!) going through all the pictures over the past 18 months (about 2500!), sorting them on my computers ("computers" - plural - I learned something right there - to not download some on one computer and then some others on another computer - it makes for huge huge disorganization and lots and lots of stress!), deleting ones I had doubles of, downloading them onto disks, and then uploading them into Snapfish. Man was that a chore!!
I still have to order the prints (only a thousand, that's all - yikes), but I figure I'll order about 100 or so a week and do it slowly over time to save moolah. Once I finally catch up, my new plan will be the following:
(This is not just a list, but a lesson learned, not just for me, but for you, too!)
1) Download only onto one computer - still not sure if my laptop or desktop makes more sense, but I'll figure that out when the time comes.
2) Download into only one program (I had pictures scattered between 3 different photo programs on 2 computers - major unnecessary hassle and stress!)
3) The very same day I will upload to Snapfish and ORDER
4) Make a folder in my photo program of the date, so that when I have enough pictures to fill up a disk, I can know what I am saving and do it in a fashionable simpler manner!
Now I have to work on an organization route for when I receive the pictures back in the mail. That's another 10+ hour day, I'm sure, and another post that hopefully I can share within the year, and maybe that organization will entail actually putting them into albums? And I don't mean scrapbook them - I have learned there's no possible way for me to scrapbook because I am such a tedious person when it comes to my creative works, so I have to go the simple stress-free and inexpensive route: open the album, slide in and presto -- done! I cannot believe I just admitted all my downfalls that pertain to my personal photographs. It's kinda embarrassing. But I can truly say I am organized when it comes to my clients - I have to be.
So now, does anyone have any photography organization skills that you would like to share? I would love love love to hear!
10 comments:
Ugh. I know exactly what you mean. I took a picture of Lydia every day for her first year (I tried...I did miss a few days.) But when we left our job in Bham (and had to switch computers), I LOST TWO MONTHS OF PICTURES! I can't even think about it...anyway, the only advice I have is to store them by date. They are a lot easier to keep track of than, "Lydia being cute"! lol. But like you, I hardly have any printed. I just scroll thru my iphoto when I want to look. ;)
Great Job Val...I'm so proud of you!!!
Tom bought me a Seagate hard drive that I put only pics on. It is so nice because they are all in one spot.
As for my printed pics I have the Rubbermaid Keepsake Photo Boxes (Wal-mart). They hold tons of pics. I also have two of the Cropper Photo Boxes for each kid. (These are younger pics.)
I have started scrap booking again...YEAH! If you want an easy way to store them in albums here is an idea: I bought the page protector's for baseball cards (Wal-mart). They hold 6 4x6 pics. I love them to sort like vacation/b-day pics. Everyone can enjoy them. No little finger prints. You can store them in a 3-ring binder. If you want to get crafty you can decorate the binder's. I have a couple I could show you. Pretty inexpensive.
Hope that helps.
Val-
CONGRATS on getting through your photo task! What an accomplishment!!
I don't have any creative ideas. I am a photo album, photo box, sometimes scrapbook kind of girl....
Wish I was more help!!!
I think that happens with the 2nd child
wow u were busy good on u
That's a big accomplishment! Yeah!
It is so hard to keep up with printing them. It's like twice the work, cause you organize them on the computer, and then once you print them, you have to organize again!
I have one of the photo storage boxes from Creative Memories that I just love. You can organize it however, but it holds tons and tons of pictures! Although, I think I need another one!!
I do believe that it's a never ending project too!
I really need to organize my pictures. I finally organized my prints a few months ago. Now I need to do my digital ones. Thanks for the reminder.
Good for you! When you get done organizing don't you feel great? Only one thing I suggest: keep your pictures on disc in a fire proof box. Just in case!
I'm kind of a nutso organizational freak. I have all of my pictures sorted by year in "My Pics". Under each year will be different folders such as "family", "Vacation" etc. Under each of those folders is "Christmas" "honeymoon" etc and then the actual picture in their folder such as "caribbean cruise 11-25-07" with the picture. Seems like a hassle but it's nice to keep the virtual albums in order like that. Every couple of months I archive the pics on a back up CD which is stored in a fireproof safe. I also upload my pics to shutterly and keep them stored there as well where I make albums to share online with family and friends.
Do you like snapfish better than ofoto? I think I like ofoto better have you ever tried it? Do tell! You are the profess!
I haven't printed out my pics of Libby in half a year. I finally got a couple months worth printed last Wednesday. I think it's more expensive to print them out on your own so I think I will let Snapfish do the rest. I will be scrapbooking, so I have a BIG, daunting task in front of me! I love scrapbooking.
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