Well…how do you eat an elephant exactly? One bite at a time of course.
I would, one-hundred percent, describe the state of OUR digital photos as an elephant. There is an enormous amount of data. Thousands upon thousands of photos stuck in our phones, on our computers–and in the clouds. Haha.
To view these precious things we pass around our phones. Some are printed (yep–still happens) and very few manage to get into photobooks. Photo books are my goal for my family and every family, really. They are such a great viewing experience. For us–just grab the year–and there are all the awesome and amazing photos from the best moments of our lives…we have nearly forgotten about.
My aim is to take this journey with you. I am a little father along than most as I do have a photo organizing business. But yesterday I found a glitch! Yep, even me, photo organizer extraordinaire, could not find a photo. Maybe you’ve experienced this too.
So, I was getting ready to post a really cute collage of photos for my husband for Father’s day. I opened Google photos (my favorite cloud sharing service) look up 1 photo March 2010….then type in April 2014…Ahhhhhh!!! Instant PAN-IC!! Where is it? Where is the first photo of my husband and our daughter? OH MI GOSH!! No where. IT ISN’T THERE! Without missing a beat I run to my computer and look in my 1st back up system on my computer. Fewh- right there, in the year folder then the month folder– I find the photo and many other photos that were not on Google. Hmm!
But wait?? How many other photos are missing? Answer–I have NO clue.
So–now what? I’m going to take this journey with you. Whether right now or later down the road, I am taking this journey to be 100% confident in my systems of photo storage, preservation and back up systems. My goal is to get everything sync’d up–the same and correctly.
I’ll share my favorite cloud sharing services and why I use them. I will share my back up systems and how I manage them and everything in between.
Are you ready?? The first thing we have to do is GATHER–everything– put it all in one place. The place?? It can be a box…or 10! You just want everything to be in one place.
Things to gather– in order to tackle the photo elephant (paper and digital):
1. Old phones, thumb drives, CD’s, laptops, external hard drives, old computers, old cameras.
2. All photo sharings/online cloud sites addresses and passwords: Google Photos, Facebook, Dropbox, Shutterfly, Instagram, Walgreens, Box, Walmart, Costco, Shutterfly, iPhotos, Flicker, Amazon Photos, etc. I am sure there are a few I’ve missed.
That is your starting point. Let me know where you are in the process. This should take about a week if you take small bites. Could be a day. Turn on a timer for 15 minutes and GATHER your memories.
Stay tuned for the next part..I’ve gathered…now what?
