Blog
Holidays and your photos
It’s the holiday season when time both speeds up and slows down. It’s also when families get together, making it a perfect time to get some older family photos identified.
Is your photo organization project bigger than you thought it would be?
Does looking at your unorganized photo collection may you feel like you are trying to navigate the Amazon river without a Jungle Cruise captain?
Mini-courses to help you organize your photos
All through the month of September, The Picture Org (anizer), in association with The Photo Managers, is presenting a daily tip to help you get motivated to organize, identify, and save your photos for both today and the future. Do you want more than just some quick ideas?
Protecting and storing your printed photos
Once your pictures are organized, you need to protect them. You will spend a lot of time organizing and sorting your original prints. Once you are done, you’ll want to protect and store them in a way that gives them the best chance to survive the ages.
The best backup for your printed photos
Scanning (or digitizing) your pictures is the first step. Our prints and photos all suffer from the risk of loss due to fire, flood, water damage, rodents, mold, mildew, or just general fading. I have seen many photos from the early 1900s that have almost faded out of existence. (I’ve also been able to restore many of them, but that is for another day.)
Create a ‘will’ for your photo collection
What do you want to happen to your pictures after you have passed?
You have a lifetime of photos, but what will happen to them when you are no longer here?
If you could only save 100 photos…
If you could only save 100 photos…Which ones would you choose? Which photos are the most special to you?
Which photos bring out the most memories?
Which photos bring out the most emotions?
Week 2: Making a photo plan
How would it feel to easily find and share your photos?
You’ve found your photos, but now what? You need a plan. This week, we’ll explore creating a photo legacy.
Dealing with duplicate photo prints
Before you do anything else, decide what to do with your duplicate pictures. One of the great sales pitches for photoshops in the ‘80s and ‘90s was double (and sometimes triple) prints for the cost of one set of prints. This sounded like a great deal at the time! We could share the prints with our friends and relatives, while still having one set for ourselves!
How many photos do you REALLY have?
Do you have 100, 1,000, 10,000, more? Knowing how many you have helps you figure out the scope of your photo project. Here are some industry standards we use when estimating photo counts -
Create a family timeline to help identify your photos
When you start organizing your photos, you will find out that most of them don’t have dates or events conveniently written on them. To help jog your memory, start making a timeline of major events in your family.
Mini-course: SOS: Save, Organize, & Share…
As a part of Save Your Photos Month, join Shelley Murray as she takes you through this DIY guide to preserving and organizing your family photos and videos. Learn best practices in organizing physical photos, videos, and memorabilia.
Don't forget home movies and videotapes!
Save Your Photos Month - Day 4: Don't forget home movies and videotapes!
Moving pictures, even without sound, tell compelling family stories. Many families have been making home movies for several generations now. You should ensure these movies are counted among the photo memories you are saving!
Your family photos live in other homes too!
There are more photos of your family than just the ones you have.
We all take lots of photos of the family, especially when we get together with extended family during holidays and big family events and adventures. Of course, other members of your family are taking lots of photos at these gatherings too.
Mini-course: Three simple things you can do today to organize your digital photos
Do you feel overwhelmed with how many photos are on your phone? Do you feel like you are ‘behind’ on making your family photo albums, and you might never catch up? How about 3 tips for getting your photo clutter under control, so you can easily find, share and enjoy your memories?
My digital photos are EVERYWHERE!
Are your digital photos all over the web? Make a list of all the places you have digital photos. Include old phones, computers, memory cards, and CDs/DVDs. Add usernames and passwords to photo websites where you've uploaded pictures.
Mini-course: How to stop photo-procrastinating
Having recently conducted a survey of the things people procrastinate about, Photo Organizing podcasters Fiona Staff and Chantal Imbach found that 97% of respondents have procrastinated organizing their precious family photos. https://SaveYourPhotos.org
My photos are EVERYWHERE!
Before you can start to organize your photos, you have to get them ALL into one place. During this first week of Save Your Photos Month, we will focus on gathering your photos.
It's time to 'Save Your Photos'
What would you do if you lost all of your photos?
With fires in the West, hurricanes and flooding in the South, not to mention pandemics all around, there has never been a better time to Save Your family Photos. Do you know how to start?
Digital Photo Restoration
Cherished photo memories fading and cracking with age? We can help them become new.