How to Organize and Manage Your Photos: Part 1
This week, I posed a simple question on Facebook that sparked the biggest response of the year:
How do you organize and store your photos? Do you need help with this? I’d love to share a blog post to help anyone struggling with this!
The responses were overwhelmingly in favor of help. It seems like organizing photos is something most people struggle with. Having been passionate about photography for years, I feel like I can offer some valuable tips to help you tackle this challenge. Before I turned photography into a business, I was an avid hobbyist. I started with film cameras, and when digital cameras became popular, we faced a new problem: how to manage and preserve digital images.
The Evolution of Photography: From Film to Digital
Back in the day, it was straightforward:
Buy a roll of film.
Take 24 pictures.
Drop off the film to be developed.
Print doubles and store them in photo albums or boxes.
Share the doubles with friends and family. Rinse and repeat!
But with the advent of digital cameras and smartphones, managing our photos became a whole new ball game. We now have photos at our fingertips constantly, and it’s easy to lose control over them.
Common Photography Problems Today
Here’s what I hear from people most often:
All my photos are stuck on my phone and I never get around to backing them up or printing them.
The photos I moved to my computer are a total mess, and I don’t print them either.
I have SD cards full of photos but I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start organizing.
I don’t know what or how to print and I’m not sure where to even print from.
I printed photos, but now I don’t know where to store them properly.
Over the course of this blog series, I’m going to help you navigate these issues and get your photo collection in order.
Why Organizing and Printing Your Photos Matters
I’ve managed to stay on top of organizing, printing, and enjoying my personal photos for over two decades. While it’s not always perfect, it works, and I want to help you create a system that works for you too!
Printing your photos is essential. I can’t stress this enough. Last year, I lost my father and my two remaining grandparents. As many of you can probably relate, pictures were incredibly comforting during that time of grief. They hold special meaning during both our joyous celebrations and our difficult moments. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, and even those sweet moments comparing your newborn's nose to the parent’s—photos help us remember, honor, and connect with our past, preserving our present for the future.
Did You Know?
In 2018, it was estimated that 1.2 trillion photos were taken worldwide, largely thanks to smartphones. That’s a staggering number! How many of those photos truly deserve to be taken out of their digital prison? How many are special enough to be printed and enjoyed in real life?
Let’s get started on the path to organizing and preserving your cherished memories. Tip #1 is coming up next, so stay tuned!
For those of you who are as obsessed with the subject as I am, check out this fascinating Google search I found on the topic of photo management. It's filled with tips and insights to help you keep up with this ever-evolving digital age.