You guys, I get it. You love your photos. You really do. But you take so many that you are completely overwhelmed. Like, totally shut down. I was there. As you can see in the image above, I have over 8,000 photos from 2015. Me. A professional photo organizer who is meticulous about going through and deleting unnecessary images. So I can only imagine the volumes of photos those of you who do NOTHING with your photos must have.

To prep for the launch of my new product offering, Year In Hand Family Yearbooks, I felt I should have one of my own to use as a sample. I always feel more comfortable marketing my own products vs. using products with my client's photos in them. In March 2016, I started to design a yearbook for my own family and by August 2016, I hadn't even completed the photo selection process. It took me over FIVE months to go back through the 8,000+ photos to even decide what should be in the yearbook. It was exhausting. I LOVE my photos. I love looking at them; I love the memories and feelings they evoke. I marvel at how my kids are growing and changing and yet, I tired of the process. 8,193 photos, y'all. From ONE year. Ugh.

Going through that process for my own family only solidified that my greatest desire is to solve this problem for you. Yes, you. The family memory keeper. The one who loves taking photos of your family. The one who loves documenting the up's and down's of your life story. And yet, the one who rarely looks at them again, if ever, after you click that shutter. You owe it to your family to share your stories, to reminisce on the good times and maybe even the bad. To laugh at the grumpy face in the photo or the sharpie drawn all over your walls. To re-live special vacations and the daily minutae that you deem important enough to capture.
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I set out to design a service that would be simple, not overwhelming, and cost-effective, not cost-prohibitive. Signing up for Year In Hand Family Yearbooks monthly subscription service will cost you less than a Starbucks a day and will reward you with a stunning retrospective of your family's prior year to proudly display in your home. A gorgeous book that will allow you to bond with your family, to share your stories and to enjoy your photos again. The process is a breeze! I set you up with a privately shared Dropbox folder and send you a monthly e-mail reminder to send me your favorite photos from the prior month. I design your book as we go and you get to review & make edits quarterly. That's it! That's all you have to do! Send me 30-40 of your favorite pics each month and shortly into the New Year, you'll receive the best gift of all: a full-color retrospective of your family's memories, sitting right in your hands.

If you're one of the 2 out of 3 parents who don't enjoy managing your family's photos or one of the 60% of families who haven't printed a photo book in FIVE years, don't hesitate to contact me today!

Photos courtesy of Yehudis Goldfarb Photography

In this day & age, there are a plethora of excellent photographers making a name for themselves with family sessions, newborn session, senior sessions, etc. But never before have I met a photographer mainly focused on capturing a woman's inner power & beauty, showing them through her lens what they often can not see for themselves. I recently sat down with fellow Lake Ridge portrait artist, Mina Habibi, to learn more about her business and what makes her vision unique.

My father passed along his love of photography to me at an early age. He was definitely our family historian, documenting every important event throughout the years. I began taking photography seriously in middle school when I signed up for a class where we got to use classic manual cameras, develop our own film in the dark room and also process our own prints. I absolutely LOVED every minute of my time in that lab and watching the magic appear as my prints developed. Although I pursued other interests in college, including dance and archaeology, and dabbled in many different jobs post-college, my love of photography stood the test of time.

When planning my wedding seven years ago, I knew I wanted to hire a solid photographer who would give me full digital rights to use the photos as I wished post-wedding. Don Mears and his wife, Lindsay, did a stellar job to say the least! While a traditional wedding album was included in the package, I wanted to make digital wedding albums to give our parents as a gift. I did a bit of research and learned of My Publisher and I've been using them for various photo book projects ever since. I cherish my traditional album from Don & Lindsay, (it is absolutely gorgeous!) but it remains safely tucked away in its storage box most of the time, while my digital album is out and about for anyone to flip through any time. And let's get back to the gifts... it's an understatement to say that both sets of parents LOVE their books. It's a stunning documentation of our special day and we all still flip through and cherish the memories of that sunny September day seven years ago. Seeing the joy this gift brought to our families made me want to give more. Photo gifts are unique, personal and truly priceless; they share our memories and tell our stories.

Fast forward to 2012, after I'd been a stay-at-home mom for three years and was looking to return to the workforce. I had so many business ideas during my time at home, but one kept coming back to me. Photo books. And yet, I couldn't see how making photo books could be a profitable business. So I signed up to attend Tory Johnson's Spark & Hustle conference that summer, hoping to get some inspiration for starting my own business. It was there I ran into Coach Jenn Lee, who I'd exchanged e-mails with earlier in the year. I was excited to introduce myself and to thank her for offering business advice to me (that I failed to follow up on!) The first business I told her I was considering was a career as a Virtual Assistant, after all, much of my corporate experience was in executive assistance. But then I mentioned photo books. And her face lit up. And apparently so did mine. She immediately pounced and could see that making photo books was my passion. And ironically enough, she'd been hired by the recently formed Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) to provide some coaching support. So she asked if I'd ever heard of them. "No," was my simple answer. Within a week, an employee of APPO called me to follow up on the interest I'd shown Coach Jenn. Two weeks later, I joined APPO. Three months after that, I'd completed their certification program and had officially launched Picture This Photo Solutions, LLC. It's been a whirlwind ever since!

Many are confused by my varied background in dance, then archaeology and now photo organizing, but I find a connection between all three. For one, I was never a "cubicle" person, even though I toiled away in one for many, many years. That's the dancer in me. Wanting to be up and moving around. And two, I've always had a deep love for history beginning with day trips to Colonial Williamsburg as a young girl and being absolutely fascinated by the "living" history represented there. It truly was like stepping into the past. So pursuing archaeology made a lot of sense to me. And it's also quite a physical activity when working in the field. But what does photo organizing have to do with any of this? Every person has a story to tell. And those stories are often buried in their boxes of photos. And as mentioned in yesterday's post, there are many treasures to be found at the bottom of those boxes. So photo organizing gives me the opportunity to be up and moving around, helping my clients sort through their photos, while also hearing fascinating stories about their lives and, like icing on the cake, I get to HELP people, which is another lifelong passion of mine. To sum it up, photo organizing takes everything I love and wraps it up into a nice, neat career that fulfills every passion of mine while making a difference in my clients' lives.

I have a wonderful friend named Nadine Medina who happens to be an outstanding professional photographer and is the owner of Fotos By Nadine Photography. She asked me if I would appear on her blog in a video interview to discuss some basic digital photo organizing how-to's. Between both of our crazy, busy lives, it literally took SIX months, but we FINALLY sat down to chat earlier this week. Click here to view our first post regarding basic digital photo organizing. We have more episodes planned for the future, including backing up your photos and great photo gift ideas. If you have any other suggestions for topics, please comment below and we'll be happy to accommodate! Also, we will be switching roles in future episodes with me interviewing Nadine on basic photography how-to's, so if you have any questions on that topic, please let us know!

It seems hard to believe, but graduation season is just around the corner... and what better gift to give your graduate than a customized photo product that tells their story, either of their college years, of all their school years, or of their entire life.

Slideshows are a great way to share all their childhood memories at their graduation party. Maybe even throw in a few embarrassing ones to entertain the crowd! I know I have a few photos of my children in mind, already tucked away for that future opportunity... like the ones of my 1-year-old son wearing his older sister's tutus and tiaras. Enjoy these tips from Fotobridge on how to digitize your photos to get them ready.

Another great gift that shows how much you care is a digital photo book that tells their life story. There are so many great photo book providers, including Artifact Uprising, My Publisher, Shutterfly, Picaboo, and Blurb, to name a few. This gift can ground them as they make their way in the world and can remind them of where they came from and of how many people love them.

And don't forget that, fingers crossed, they'll be moving in to their first home (and not back in to yours!) so they'll need some decorations. Canvas wall art depicting close friends or their travel adventures is another great gift idea. Artsy Couture's Couture Canvases are the BEST in the business and were previously available only to professional photographers. I'm thrilled to share that as a member of APPO, I can now provide these products to YOU using your OWN photos!

These days there are so many products to put photos on; the list is endless: Smartphone covers, iPad cases, jewelry, blankets, mugs, magnets, calendars, tote bags, coasters, etc. Do yourself a favor and end the quest for the perfect graduation gift by taking a retrospective look at your family's photo collection and designing a unique and truly priceless gift for your graduate. And, as always, if you like these ideas but have no clue where to start, I'm here to help!

Not all of them of course, but a good many. A few months ago, I shared on Facebook that I came back from our 10-day Christmas trip to Ireland with over 1,000 photos. And once again, I came back from a holiday weekend with 500+ photos on my camera. In just three days, I took 500 DSLR photos and another 100 or so on my iPhone, plus videos. Do you think I NEED 600+ photos to document my 3-day Easter weekend? NOT.A.CHANCE. I have two gorgeous and photogenic children, but I don’t need every single picture I’ve ever taken of them. All I’ll do is clog up the memory on my computer and overwhelm myself the next time I go to make a photo book or slideshow.

Here’s the thing, keep the meaningful photos, maybe even a few of the blurry ones if they help tell your story. But don’t keep 15 pictures of the same scene, when you were just trying to get the right angle or the best expressions. And don’t just keep the best ones, either. I have a series of pictures of my daughter from Christmas and there’s not a smile to be found, but I managed to capture the most hilarious set of facial expressions and I know she’ll enjoy seeing them as she grows older.

It may be too much to ask, but try to downsize your photos by a half. Or at least by a quarter. You won’t regret it and neither will your computer.

Get in the habit of following these three simple steps after each photo-taking event:

1. UPLOAD your photos to your computer. (Don’t just keep them on the memory card and buy a new one.)
2. Review each and every picture and mark down the obvious deletes.
3. Delete the photos on that list. (You can DO it!!!)

If you're feeling particularly daring, you can repeat steps 2 & 3 a few times to pare down your photos even more.

I promise if you can get in this habit each and every time you return home, you will find that your digital photo collection is much more manageable and you aren’t wasting valuable storage space on photos you’ll most likely never use.

If the thought of deleting your photos has you paralyzed with fear, contact me any time.  I'm here to support you!

This post has joined the Blog Hop at A Dish of Daily Life.

I've been meaning to do this for my children for YEARS. I attempt to keep the multitude of toys organized by using these shoebox-size storage bins from Target. But I've never gotten around to actually labeling them with what's inside. Check out this blog post on how to use photos to label your children's toys. It might mean the difference between your toddler's room being a mess or being spotless!

Then: 23-year-old mom. Boyfriend. 3-year-old daughter. Cancer diagnosis at 5 months pregnant. Baby delivered at 7 months. Chemo starts. Jobless. Homeless.

Now: 23-year-old mom. Boyfriend. 3-year-old daughter. 3-month-old son. Jobless. Homeless. Cancer spreading. Only weeks to live. Children may be in separate homes after her passing.

This scenario seems unimaginable and yet, it is Daveen’s reality. Nadine Medina, a friend of mine, recently shot a pro bono family session to help this suffering family and their tragic story. The photos are powerful. On the surface, they look like any other proud parents documenting their growing family. And yet, there is a deep tragedy beneath the surface. Daveen’s cancer is spreading and she’s been told she has weeks to live. This photo session will be a lifeline for her children as they grow up without her. Documented proof that their mom was once a vibrant, seemingly healthy, young woman. There is no doubt she will continue to be a loving presence throughout their lives, a guardian angel keeping watch over her babes. These photos are such a gift to her children, showing the love she was once able to physically give and will still be able to spiritually give. Her story is devastating, but a potent reminder to us of the power of photos to capture and document life’s sweet and special moments for generations to come and of how fleeting our lives can be.

To learn more about Daveen’s story, click here.

Also, please consider donating to her children’s fund here.

If you’re like me and have family and friends abroad, or even across the country, a shared site can be a great way to stay connected and keep everyone up-to-date on your family’s story. While family blogs are popular (and I follow a few), I prefer tighter control over the security of my family's personal information. I don’t want any random person in cyberspace having access to photos of my children or knowing every minute detail of our daily lives. And due to ever changing privacy rules, I am also wary of how much I share on Facebook. Not to mention, and I know it’s hard to believe, but I still know quite a few people who refuse to participate on Facebook, including my husband.

So when I became pregnant with my first baby, I knew we had to find a way to share pictures and updates with my husband’s family in Ireland that was secure. I did a lot of research and decided to create a Shutterfly Shared Site. Once created, your site can be password-protected then you can add members, so you stay in control of who has access to your information. The sites have sections for photo albums, journal entries, video postings and a calendar to name a few. Of course, I was much more diligent about journal postings with my first-born, but at least I’ve managed to keep up with photo albums and funny videos of the kids since my second child was born. If you’re looking for a more private way to share family photos and stories, then a Shutterfly Shared Site may be right for you!

Disclaimer: I have received nothing from Shutterfly for this post, I am simply a satisfied customer.

Hello! And thank you for checking out my new blog! I launched my business in 2012 precisely because we are all drowning in a sea of not only shoeboxes full of printed photos, but literally thousands, upon thousands, of digital images taken with our fancy DSLR's, point-and-shoots and Smartphones. We know capturing images of our lives, both the big milestone events and the daily details, is important, but we don't know what to do with them after we click the shutter. That's where personal photo organizers like myself come to the rescue. We can spend as little as a few hours with you, setting up an organizational process for you to complete, or spend many hours with you sorting and organizing a lifetime of photos. We can come to your house once or on a monthly basis to consolidate and back up your family's photos. We can take your cherished pictures and create the most stunning displays of art for your home. We can relieve the anxiety and stress you feel at the thought of losing a lifetime of pictures. As we saw with Superstorm Sandy, it can happen in an instant. And what do those who have lost their homes most often go back to look for? Their pictures. Concrete evidence of a life well lived. Make 2013 the year you commit to organizing, protecting and sharing your family's photo collection. It's a commitment you won't regret!