703.875.0554 ~ megan@picturethisps.com
Picture This Photo Solutions, LLC
  • Home
  • About
    • Why Hire A Photo Organizer?
    • Happy Clients Are My Passion!
    • Let's Talk Pricing!
  • Services
    • Year In Hand Family Yearbooks
  • Blog
  • FAQ's
  • Gallery
  • In The Press
    • Let's Talk Live DC!
  • Inspirational Quotes
  • Contact

It May Sound Crazy, But DELETE Your Photos!

4/2/2013

11 Comments

 
Picture
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.
11 Comments

A Quick Note About Chronological Time

3/26/2013

3 Comments

 
Picture
Most of us live in a hectic, highly-scheduled world. We are bound by clocks and alarms. And from this perspective, we attempt to organize our lifetime of photos. But we get hung up on TIME. Your goal of organizing your lifetime of photos seems too overwhelming and it gets tabled for later.

I’m here to tell you a little secret. When it comes to organizing your photo collection, throw time out the window. Don’t get hung up trying to puzzle together days, months, years, even decades. You’ll make yourself crazy and won’t get anything accomplished.

The easiest way to start thinking about your photos is in categories. Birthdays, holidays, weddings, vacations, immediate family, extended family. You get the picture. While every family will have a different set of categories, it is MUCH easier to pour over thousands of family photos within the context of categories. Your category piles will start to build and you won’t waste any time struggling to remember the date & year of your Uncle Joe’s wedding.

Think about it. When you need to find a specific picture, you wouldn’t think, “I need to find that picture of my sister taken on April 5, 1973.” You think, “I remember a great picture of my sister taken at Uncle Joe’s wedding.” So when your photo organizing project is complete, you can easily open your archival-quality storage box, find the weddings section, then find the tab that says “Uncle Joe’s Wedding” and voilà! There’s that great pic of your sister!

This one tip alone will make it so much easier for you to start your photo organizing project, but if you still feel overwhelmed by the sheer VOLUME of photos, just remember I’m here to help. Contact me any time!


3 Comments

Seriously. Back Up Your Photos Before It's Too Late!

3/23/2013

8 Comments

 
Picture
This was the scene in the court next to mine earlier this evening. A house engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. Thankfully, the two residents who were home at the time got out safely. But guess what was the first thing she mentioned after saying all was lost? Her PICTURES. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when tragedy strikes, what people want most are their pictures, not their clothes, their jewelry, their furniture. Their PICTURES. And sadly, so many of us don’t take the time to BACK UP our photo collections until it’s too late. 

Here are a few steps to take to protect your non-digital photo collection:

1) For the boxes and bags of prints you have from the pre-digital days, possibly scattered all over your house, gather them all in one place.
2) Next, commit the time to sorting through and organizing them.
3) Once organized, put them in an archival storage box that is easily accessible to grab in case of emergency. 
4) Another option with prints is to hire a reputable company like FotoBridge to scan them all to digital so they can be backed up along with the rest. 

For your digital photo collection, it’s common advice now to back up your digital files in at least three places. Two of those should be off site and at least one as far removed from you geographically as possible should disaster strike.

Here are several options for backing up your digital files:

1) Use an external hard drive (EHD) like PictureKeeper, that makes it ridiculously easy to collect ALL the digital images from your computer. Then keep the EHD either in a fire-proof safe, a safe deposit box or even send to a friend to store for you.
2) Use a cloud storage service like Carbonite or This Life which will cover you for remote location storage.
3) Burn your images to archival-quality DVDs like these from MAM-A and, again, put them in a fire-proof safe, a safe deposit box or a friend's house. 

I'm in this business because I care about protecting your family's cherished memories. I don't want to see another family in tears because they've lost everything, including their photos. I implore you to develop a back-up plan for your photo collection in the event of a catastrophe. We never want to think it could happen to us, but there's no harm in planning for the worst. If tragedy were to strike, you’ll be crying about your lost “stuff,” but feeling grateful that your photos are safe off site and can be recovered with ease.


This post has joined the Let's Get Organized Blog Hop over at Dinosaur Superhero Mommy's site.
8 Comments

Using Photos To Help Little Ones Clean Up

3/19/2013

8 Comments

 
Picture
Wouldn't these look better with photo labels for what's inside?
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!

Picture
From messy...
Picture
To spotless! My preschooler might have been more help had her bins been labeled with photos!
8 Comments

    About Me

    I'm an APPO-certified personal photo organizer with a passion for helping people protect and share their family photos.

    Instagram

    RSS Feed

    Don't Miss A Post!

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    February 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    April 2016
    February 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    9-11
    9-11-01
    Archival
    Archival Storage
    Archiving
    Art
    Autobiography
    Backing Up
    Bloggers
    Blogging
    Blogs
    Business
    Canvas Wall Art
    Canvas Wall Art
    Catastrophe
    Children
    College
    Comparison
    Confidence
    Custom Gift
    Dc
    DC Metro Area
    Digital Asset Preservation
    Digital Assets
    Digital Photo Books
    Digital Photo Organizing
    Digital Slideshows
    Digital Yearbooks
    Downsizing
    Entrepreneurs
    External Hard Drive
    Family Blogs
    Family Yearbooks
    Femworking
    Fotobridge
    Girl Power
    Graduates
    Graduation
    Grief
    Grieving
    Gymnastics
    Holiday Gifts
    Holidays
    Inheritance
    Inner Beauty
    Inspiration
    Leads
    Legacy
    Life Books
    Memories
    Natural Disaster
    Networking
    New Clients
    New Year's Resolution
    Nyc
    Organization
    Parenting
    Parents
    Pentagon
    Photo Books
    Photo Canvas
    Photo Collage
    Photo Gifts
    Photographer
    Photography
    Photo Memories
    Photo Memories
    Photo Mugs
    Photo Organizer
    Photo Organizing
    Photo Prints
    Photo Products
    Photos
    Photo Wallpaper
    Posters
    Preservation
    Privacy
    Reflections
    Scanning
    Scary Mommy
    School
    Security
    Self Confidence
    Self-confidence
    Self Esteem
    Seniors
    September 11th
    Shared Sites
    Slideshow
    Small Business
    Special Offers
    Storage
    Storage Bins
    Storytelling
    Toys
    Traditional Photo Album
    Wall Art
    Washington DC
    Women
    World Trade Center
    Yearbooks
    Yoga Studio

    RSS Feed

© 2022 Picture This Photo Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.