Digital Photography/ Organization and What to Do with Our Photos of Today

I make an annual photo book for each of my kids. It has photos from the whole year...school events, holidays, parties, vacations. It's still only a small sampling of photos we have but at least it's organized by year and something they get to keep and flip through whenever they want. And I like that if they're damaged at anytime, I can just order another because the photos and book are saved online. I use Shutterfly but others are just as good. My kids look forward to their book every year. and doing it be age, they can easily be cataloged chronologically.

J.,

My daughter is now 2 years old :0) I have put together a photo album every year for her birthday of the year.

I send them all to www.ritzpix.com. They have a same day special of 6 cents Digital Prints every Tuesday & Wednesday. So I have ordered a couple of hundreds at a time for less then $15.00.

Hope this helps.
T.

I personally intend to print out the most special pics. However, that's on the list along with all those other organizing projects.

I am an archivist and can tell you that we do not keep anything in CD format as that technology is unreliable. Even if you lock it away in a humidity controlled environment, home-burned CDs do deteriorate and cannot be counted on to last more than 5 years. Better to save your pics to a hard drive, thumb drive, or have a commercial company (Kodak, Snapfish, or Shutterfly) store for you if you want to keep digital originals, or you can print out hard copies. Professional prints will last longer than home printed ones, which fade pretty fast.

Hello,

I am a creative memories consultant. I love to scrapbook, but I have not time nor do I want my 2 year old twins making a mess with all the papers. So I decided to be a consultant becuase they have a scrapbook but it is digital YEAH!! I have time for that, no mess. So I make albums, books, etc.. with the software print it and my friends and family have all the memories at their finger tips. It is organized and it will last. No more plastic bins of pictures.
My latest album is og my pregnancy, baby showers and the birth of the twins. My next project I will be making a book of all my ulta sound pictures, since with twins I had an ulta sound every month. I will print two copies of the book for each child.
When you have time check it out. When I first started I did 8 pages in an hour. You can be very creative. Good Luck!!

http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/monicacastaneda

Great question, J.. Those of us that have been taking digital photos for years of our children, family and pets have more jpegs on our computers and memory sticks than we have photos in our albums. Sort of sad; the joy of reliving the memories is not happening. There are solutions. I've been teaching digital scrap booking classes that address your concerns. First step is gathering all those digital photos, combining them into one program made to sort, catalog and journal the memories. Then save to an external hard drive that can be put in a save deposit box or is easy to grab in case of a house fire. Second step is to print the best of your photos to put into a traditional scrap books or to make digital scrap books. I too am a MAC user. The two programs I use are PC based, but I can adapt these programs to my MAC by using a program called Parallels. If you desire more specific information, please respond to me personally. J. J.

You've already gotten good advice. The one thing I didn't see was a suggestion that you backup to an off site service. My husband subscribed to Mozy for only $4.95 per month, and it performs a back up of our files (the ones we designate) every day. We feel much better about our son's pictures now.

I agree that it's nice to have prints of all of them, but they're not all that great, and what are our children going to want to do to look at them later? Pick out 100 boxes out of the closet or pick up one hard drive? And if you print them, you don't know the date they're taken. With a file, the date is attached to the file as long as your camera has the correct date.

I would suggest you ORGANIZE them before backing them up. I have my son's pics in folders for each month (they stay in order when labeled 2010-01, 2010-02......) And inside each folder are pics and videos. I put the videos in a separate folder, as it's not always easy to tell what's a video and what's a pic if you're using thumbnails to view them.

If you organized them well, I would suggest that you burn them onto a disk, maybe one for each year. Harddrive is also a great suggestion, as a USB hookup is here to stay. CD roms? Probably they'll still be around in 30 years too. CDs won't get scratched up if you burn it, then put it in a box in the closet. Another option would be to use a thumb drive/memory stick and store THOSE in the closet/desk drawer, but they are expensive. I've never had a problem with them not reading the info stored on them.

Photobooks - snapfish, walgreens, walmart, any place that has online photo services can print them out. You can make as simple or fancy as you'd like - even "scrapbook" quality w/ your own captions and notes. It's something your kids can hold. Fairly inexpensive given how many photos you can include - plus they make GREAT gifts for other family members.

We've made one for every each city we've lived in (we move a lot in the military) to help our kids with their memories.

Hello J.,
I think that this question is so relevent. Mainly, I believe that the best photos should be printed. We take photos....why? To look at them and share them and ENJOY them. No one can tell me that when we are grandparents, we are going to sit down at the computer with our grandchildren and look at photos. I believe they should be in hardback albums. With our journalling, in our own handwriting. What a treasure that will be! Just take the best ones.
After you print them put them in a Creative Memories Power Sort Box. It is a photo safe black organizer box that organizes 2400 photos, with room on the lid for the large photos. I have THREE. They are awesome. In case of a fire, I grab the boxes and my albums and out the door I go!
You can view it at www.mycmsite.com/marycluley then "shop products" then "traditional scrapbooking" then "organizers." It is a real SOLUTION to photo organization.
I really believe that photos should be printed...to ENJOY....not just left (organized OR disorganized) on a computer. Good luck to you!

I am a huge fan of scrapbooking. Whether you do digital scrapbooking (that is, laying everything out in a computer program, and then e-mailing it off to be professionally printed), or traditional scrapbooking (where you print your pictures out, and then lay them out by hand in a scrapbook), it's very important to preserve your family's memories in an accessible way!

I would really recommend finding a good Creative Memories consultant in your area. They have so many fantastic tools you can use, and a good consultant can show you all kinds of ways to organize your photos and then get them into an album (where you can also include descriptions - because in 20 years, you'll have forgotten who your kids' friends where in the pictures, for instance). It may seem overwhelming to do this on your own, but a good consultant will really help simplify things for you. (I have a fantastic consultant but she's in Fresno... =) She has taught me not only how to organize my photos, but how to create a whole beautiful scrapbook in less than a day (yes, it can be done!). I do traditional scrapbooking but I have a few friends who have gone digital and love it as well.

Good luck and have fun!

I sure would love to see some answers to this too. I have over 10,000 photos on iphoto and although I do have some on back up discs, most are just there..sometimes I can find them and send them as attachments and some I have printed, but they are such good mementos and so precious, I would hate to lose them, I do put them on slideshow at times for my own pleasure and my husband, occasionally another family member or friend, but how to organize and access and clear out files easily. Now with so many it takes ages for it to load...N. J

Can you upload your photos to Shutterfly or other similar sites, and then make photo books? That's what I've been doing now that we are parents. I manage to find lots of specials and freebies, too, so it's pretty economical. Before Shutterfly, I was attempting to print all of those special baby photo moments when our daughter was napping. It was making me crazy -- printer jams, ink catridges running dry, etc. Yep, Shutterfly (or similar) is much better, and you can be as creative as you want to w/it, too, or just make a basic photo book to share w/family.

I'm a Mac/PC user and I keep everything backed up on external drives as well as burned to discs that I keep in a safe location. I usually keep the discs somewhere separate - but I have come to grips with the fact that if there was a fire I could potentially lose all photographs - I also have a lot backed up onto photosharing sites - picasa, etc but it's not originals...every year I make a photobook for Christmas for grandparents and relatives too.

www.approvemyalbum.com

ID: sharon and Calvin Hudson or

ID: Becky and James

You can contact me at ____@____.com if you would like more information.

C.

Hello J.,

We have a website where I upload pictures on a monthly basis. it's divided by year, month and sometimes special ocassion like a birthday or wedding or a special trip. We've put so many pictures on the website that should something happen to the other pictures, some pictures would survive. (I hope!)

make multiple backups of the most important pictures and have a copy at your parents, inlaws, etc. I have an external drive and from time to time put things on cd. make sure you have a backup for your external drive and upgrade to a new one every 2-3 years (drives DO fail).

Have ufn taking pictures! oh, take pictures for your self and then share them if you want. sometimes I publish 200 pictures in one month. Those are the pictures that I want to look at and hopefully the rest of the family will like them too!
~C.~

Just a small add on to the other posts...You can always pick up a small fire proof safe from walmart. We picked one up for important documents for about $15.00. A water proof/ fire proof safe is about $40.00 but sometime knowing that your memories are safe from harm makes it worth it. :)

No matter what you decide, BACK UP YOUR PIC'S!!!! I annoyed my husband to the point of breakdown. He downloaded all the pic's on CD's and someone gave me a virus via Facebook and killed our laptop. THANK GOD I'm a nag!!!! ;) No matter what format you use to view the pictures, protect them. We now choose to use the memory cards and save them. Rather than erasing them after downloading, we still save to CD's and buy new memory sticks...after all, what are they 15-20 bucks?
As far as viewing, the only thing I can think is just print them out or buy a videi picture frame...which isnt too cheap.

Mag :)

First of all, I know it is hard but I think you have to start by deleting the bad and even some of the average pictures. I have a really hard time with this but have been pushing myself to do it more. In our parents day they had to be much more economical in the amount of pictures that they took because film was expensive. Today with digital we have the freedom to take as many pictures as we want for free. This is great to give us the choice of many shots of the same pose or activity but also leads to way, way too many pictures.

Once you have saved only the best of the best (and maybe a few extra too) I like to put together picture books using the online websites. There are many options, I have seen books from MyPublisher and Picaboo but there are many others. Personally I like the quality of Picaboo a little better. You still may not be able to include all your photos but you can get a lot of them printed in a nice concise format. Cutting down your photos to the really great ones also gives you the opportunity to print them out and keep a box around for your children. I know growing up I loved to flip through all the old pictures that my parents had in the house also.

Hi We have our screensaver set to our pics and our kids sit on the couch watching their life go by in pics- on the computer better than tv-

I struggle with this too! I would be crushed if I lost the pictures I've taken of my daughter as a baby. So, there are a few things I've decided to do:

1. I choose my favorites pictures and back those up in two places: on CDs and at an external site - we pay for a Flickr Pro account because you can save the photos in their original size.

2. I love scrapbooking, but it's hard to find the time anymore, so I'm working on creating a photobook using an online service (I'm using TinyPrints, but there are many others). Then I'll have a scrapbook-like book of my favorite photos. I'm planning to order extra copies of the book as Mother's Day presents for the grandmas.

3. I print out and frame a few photos, but I'm also considering getting a digital photo frame, which could cycle through many pictures (and would also serve as another backup storage location for those pictures).

I am a Creative Memories Consultant and we have the most awesome digital software around. First we have Memory Manager that is a Digital Organization kit. Then we have Storybook Creator which gives you the flexiblity if you are person that does not like to cut and paste. Both are products are not web-based, therefore you can take it anywhere on a laptop.

Printing pictures is easy too! You can use our digital center to print or house the photos. Check out my website for more information: http://www.mycmsite.com/aprildunhamfilson. I am sure you will be amazed!

How about making a book of each year? Pick your favorites and Iphoto will even organize them into a book for you. Super simple and a hard copy to keep.

I would definitely put them on CDs and back up your computers. Don't just make one copy, make several! Unlike old fashioned photo albums you can make multiple copies on CDs. Make one for each child. I love Picasa personally for my digital camera. I have also been organizing my collection of pictures and being slashing them down to just "the best", organizing by year, name and location. (with 8 kids it is easy to forget the where when and how) I also have been considering "starring" (a function on Picasa) my favorites and making hard copies to go in an album. Walgreens is pretty cheap and if you join their website you can get special offers. I love using Walgreens for hard copies because my mother and MIL are old enough they like to hold onto the pictures. I can order them on-line and my mom/MIL can pick them up at their local store. =)
Remember, even the hard copy pictures can get ruined if you have a fire or water damage. Making multiple copies and making sure someone outside your home has one will ensure you won't ever lose your memories.

A friend of mine has only one picture of her before she was 18 because her parent's house burnt with everything. So, paper is not safer than digital.
What we do:
Our pictures are organized by date (folder 2010, inside a folder per month, inside a folder per day with the name of the event of the day). When it's big enough or a CD, we burn a CD that we keep in a metal box at home and another that we have in my MIL home. Our favorite pictures are on Picasa.

At the end of the year, we make a small album of the year for our parents and grand-parents and a copy for us.

We also have a digital photo frame with a slide show option.

Hi Momma- I know it's alot of work, but I recommend scrapbooking. Or printing your photos through a place like Costco that does them on photo paper, etc. It's much better than the whole ink jet thing. Then, do as our parents did- collect photo books and start laying them out. I think the digital age is a double edged sword- while it's great for some things and seems to make life go quicker, some days I don't think life should go quicker- and as someone who has had a hard drive fry with all of her stuff on it, having that picture or that poem or that letter in my hot little hand makes all the difference.
Good luck!

After reading all the great responses, I'll throw in my 2 cents:

- first of all, nothing is every 100% safe. If you back up to a CD or DVD, those can be scratched or even just render themselves useless for no reason at all (it's happened to me on several occassions with CD's I've burned at work; one day the files work fine, then one day they don't. Now way to retrieve them). If you store them offsite to a website, what happens when that site becomes bankrupt or whatever - are you going to be able to transfer 10s of thousands of pics somewhere else?

- second of all, do what is easiest for YOU. Personally I think the easiest is an external harddrive that is backed up daily or weekly via an online server somewhere. But maybe storing actual pics in a box somehow is easiest. Or scrapping them. Or only printing the best pics.

- third, organize what you have & organize as you go. No matter what, if they're not organized when you have time to do something with them, then you're having to spend a whole lotta energy figuring out the what, when & where.

It's an excellent question & thankfully there seems to be many solutions. I wholeheartedly agree with one poster, that if we think it's safe to keep them on our computers & we're going to sit down with relatives to look through them, we're only kidding ourselves. Hard copies are what people look at eventually.

Good luck!

I use Snapfish to back up my photos online and then have an external drive dedicated to just photos as well. Eventually I will put that in a safe deposit box or fireproof case. I plan to back everything as well on CDs but have not been as good with that. What I just did though and plan to do each year is create a hard cover photo book online with the photos I have uploaded on Snapfish. I created a favorites folder and did it all online rather than printing out photos and putting them in an album- really saves a lot of steps and I can make extra copies for the grandparents.

I've just learned to use iPhoto and my digital SLR so I've been thinking about this. First, I ruthlessly purge picture from digital files. Do we need the 50 pictures of our cat, yard, etc? No. Once you cull through the pictures you have a manageable collection. Second, print out the pictures you like (which should be all of them or else why are you keeping them?). If all else fails you can get more copies made from an original at Kinko/FedEx with their cool (Kodak, I think) machine. Third, organize the pictures chronologically in photo boxes or show boxes.

Keep in mind that as your kids get older the cute photo's will get cuter and the blurry, bad photo's will seem worthless - throw those out. And, if you are like me, you take significantly fewer pictures as they get older.

We currently have pictures stored in iPhoto, Kodak Easyshare website and on Photo CD's. Now that I'm getting more adept at handling the photo's online we may rely more on iPhoto. But I think the ultimate fail-safe is a hard copy of the photo.

I have an external hard drive we store all our photos , music , etc on it.