How to Organize and Manage Pictures | Part 1
This week, I asked a question on Facebook. It had the biggest response of the year:
How do you guys store your pictures? Do you need help with this? I would love to write a blog post if you're on the struggle bus!
The responses were what I expected. “Help me” was the general consensus. Since I’ve been so interested in taking pictures for so long, I do feel like I have some insight to share. Well before I started making money taking pictures, I was shooting photographs. I’ve been taking lots of pictures since way back in the days of film cameras. Digital cameras became popular and we started losing the battle against our photographs.
Back then it was easy:
Buy film, take 24 pictures, drop off film, print doubles, get pictures, put in box or photo album and share the doubles with friends and family, repeat! The added responsibility of getting the cameras off the digital storage and to the printer is where many people give up. It’s especially bad now that our phones are amazing cameras that come along with us everywhere we go. Pictures, pictures, all the time.
The main problems I’ve heard are:
All my pictures are on my phone and I never move them off or print them.
The pictures I’ve actually moved to my computer are a completely disorganized mess and I don’t print them.
I have SD cards full of pictures everywhere and don’t have any clue where to start.
I don’t know how or what to print, and I don’t know where to print from.
I printed pictures and I don’t know where to store them.
Over the course of several blog posts, I hope to help with these issues.
I have somehow managed to take, organize, print and enjoy my personal photos for 2 decades without getting behind and adapting to changing technologies and systems. It ain’t perfect, but it works! Hopefully, some of my experiences will help get you going!
Printing pictures is so important. That’s my ultimate goal for you! In the course of a year, I lost my dad and both remaining grandparents. As I’m sure you know, pictures are extremely special and comforting in our moments of grief. They are also important in our celebrations. Birthday parties, graduation parties, weddings, comparing a newborn nose to a brand new mom and dad’s… pictures are a huge part of our lives, the thing that helps us connect with our past and preserve our present for the future.
Did you know that in 2018, it was estimated that 1.2 trillion pictures were taken, thanks to Smart Phones? 1.2 trillion. How many of those were worthy enough to be busted out of their digital prison? How many were special enough to be printed and enjoyed?
Let’s begin the hard work. Tip #1 coming up next! If you’re nerdy like me and want to read up on this subject, this Google search was very interesting!