Stamp With Jenny

Lately, I’ve been trying to catch up on my scrapbooking.  I’ve been woefully behind for what seems like forever, and due to a confluence of factors, I feel like I’m falling even farther and farther into that hole.  It doesn’t help that I’m usually an extremely slow scrapbooker, although I’ve gotten much better at getting past my perfectionism in favor of just “getting it done.”  What seems to have helped is that I’ve tried using a combination of traditional, digital, and divided page protectors to get through my overwhelming stash of photos.  (More on that to come in a future post…)

In the course of this process, I’ve come to realize that a *huge* key to being able to scrap my memories efficiently is having a good system for filing the photographs that I’ve taken.  If I can find the photos I want quickly, I’m that much more likely to get them scrapped in a timely fashion!  So, here’s what I’ve learned…

1.  First, upload your digital photos to your computer regularly.

Whether I take my big camera or just use my phone, I upload on a regular basis.  Keeping those files in your camera doesn’t help you get them on paper.  And if the unthinkable happens and you lose (or even worse, break…) your camera, if the vast majority of your photos have been uploaded already, you won’t have to depend on your brain for those memories!

2.  Organize as you upload.

When I upload my memory card to the computer, the first thing I do is purge the bad photos that I know I won’t use.  There’s no reason to keep them, and the more photos you have, the longer it takes to find the one you want.  Then, I sort the remaining photos into folders for easy retrieval.

My system is simple: each time I upload, I create a new folder.  This folder is named with the month and year that the pictures were taken, year first.  (eg. 2012-09)  This way, when I go into My Pictures on the computer, the photos are in chronological order and easy to find.  If all of the photos in this folder are one subject, I add that to the name of the folder, after the date.  (eg. 2012-09 – Disney World)  If there are multiple subjects, I create sub-folders within the dated folder, and name them appropriately.

3.  Keep track of what you’ve done.

To make it faster to figure out which photos you still need to get scrapped, there are a couple of ways to track them.  I’ve used a couple of different methods, and haven’t really decided which one I like better.  The first option (and my current preference) is to create two main Pictures folders: one for photos and events that you’ve already scrapped, and one for those that haven’t yet been dealt with.  Then, organize the photos within those two folders as described above.  As you finish working with a group of photos, it’s very easy to just move them over to the “other side.”

My other idea is to mark individual photos or folders once they’ve been scrapbooked.  I’d add an “x” or some other easily identifiable character to the filename or folder name to quickly see which ones I still need to get around to using.

4.  Back up, back up, back up!

It’s simple: inevitably, your computer is going to crash.  If you want to keep those photo files forever, you have to make sure you’re keeping them in multiple places.  We recently had an external (backup) hard drive completely fail.  We lost a lot of my husband’s and kids’ music files, but I didn’t lose a single photo!

The first place my photos get saved is my laptop’s hard drive.  This is where I do all of my editing and other “manipulation” of the files.

Next, I back up the entire My Pictures folder to a USB drive.  I find that this step keeps the images easily portable and shareable, when someone needs to find a photo for a school project, for example, and they don’t need to touch my computer to get access.  🙂

In addition, every so often, I burn my photo files to a DVD.  Hard drives don’t have infinite storage, so someday I’m sure I’ll have to start deleting; if the files are already backed up to a disc, I know I can safely delete away.  In the back of my mind, I also consider this my insurance against weird flukes — if the house is ever hit by lightning, or there’s an immense power surge, all of the electronics could get fried, but my important files are still protected.

Finally, I have recently started using cloud storage as an additional, back-up backup.  I’ve seen too many house fires and other catastrophic events lately, and I know that I can’t rely on keeping my memories only in my house.  I use Dropbox and have found it to be very easy and dependable.  (It also has the added advantage of allowing me to access my photos on my iPad, iPhone, or any other computer with a minimum of hassle…)

I’ve found that, while they may seem a tad OCD, my strategies seem to be working well keeping me on top of my digital photo files.  These ideas may not work for you, but I hope they at least provide a starting point to help you think about how to protect and organize your precious photos so they’ll be there for you to enjoy in the years to come.

Coming up soon…. options for older, film photos.

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