Here’s the trick! Start small! Let’s work with the pictures you have taken this week.
If you go back to the beginning of time (or your time anyway!) you are probably talking about an overwhelming amount of photographs. That’s when procrastination starts. It becomes a project for “someday”. I suggest we start with some simple organization habits. There are easy things we can do starting today!
ONE – Everyday (I do this when I hop in bed at night) take a quick look at the pictures you took on your phone that day. Most days it will likely only take a minute but make it a habit to look at your pictures everyday.
TWO – Hit the heart and create a favorites list as you are looking at those pictures. Did you take 25 pictures of your dog, 4 screenshots of recipes and one of the suspicious freckle on your leg? Pick one favorite of your pup and leave everything else alone for now. If it was a special day, a birthday party or vacation narrow it down to a small group that tells the story of the day. One of the person of honor, one of the group, a candid moment you love….. Still try to keep it to the smallest and very best pictures.
THREE – Once a week go back and look at your screenshots. When you open your pictures click on the “albums” on the bottom. Then scroll down to through the list of albums to “screenshots”. Click on that and then you are only looking at those often useless images. Delete useless screenshots from that folder.
FOUR – Once a month go back to the albums and look at just the favorites group you had collected. I select just the best of those to make prints every month. I shoot for around 10-15 images, but some months I do pick a few more. This will be easy because you have already narrowed it down so nicely. This even smaller group of favorites are the ones you will get physical prints of every month.
FIVE – It’s time to get those pictures printed. I’m all about the physical prints! I think that is absolutely the best way to truly enjoy your photographs. And if you make it a habit to order prints and add them to a photo album it’ll seem mindless. I am currently doing a test run on a dozen different photo printing labs. I’ll have those results soon…. If you’re on the mailing list watch for that coming your way! If not be sure and sign up 🙂
SIX – Download the Amazon Photos app. This app is a must have if you are an Amazon Prime member. They offer UNLIMITED!!!!! photo storage. It’s completely mindless. Download the app on your phone and it can easily be set up to back up your photo’s everyday. Bonus, you can also order 4×6 prints rights from the app. It literally takes seconds to do. Order as few as one single photo and it’ll be sent right to your door!
SEVEN – When you receive your pictures it is quick, easy and mindless to put those photos in an album since they have been narrowed down to such a small group and we are doing it in small bits every month. Check out the albums I use. I love these albums because they fit a ton of pictures AND bonus, there is an option for all vertical images. If you are like me and shoot mostly vertical photographs on your phone this is a great album. They come in TONS of colors too. Definitely my favorite!
EIGHT – Now let’s talk a little more about having a secure back up of those photographs! Ideally you should have your digital pictures backed up in three places. Your phone is one, but keep in mind iCloud is just a mirror of what is on your phone. It is not an actual back up, so we aren’t going to count that as a storage location. I suggest Amazon Photos, Google Photos or DropBox. They have apps that make backing up pictures super easy. The other place I keep my photographs is on an external hard drive that is connected to my computer. Here is a link to the hard drive that I use.
Once you’ve gotten in the daily habit of keeping your current photographs organized it’ll be much easier to go back to the old photos. And after all, the pictures you take today will be the old pictures before you know it! Having them under control now means you never have to look back and wish you had!