Happy New Year! I love to review the past year and set new goals in January. It makes me feel optimistic thinking about all I can accomplish. Our New Year’s Resolution Course is set up so you can accomplish a big goal in just 4 weeks. My print photos are almost organized, so I’m going to finish that task along with you and check off one big accomplishment to start the year. I’ll also enjoy having one less worry at the back of my mind! I enjoyed sharing a tip with you each month in 2017 and will continue to do so this year. I am, however, repeating my tip from last January because it will truly make it easier to organize every single picture you take this year!
January Tip – Check your camera’s time and date stamp
Remember when we used to print our pictures and write the names and dates on the back? If you have this information it’s easier to look at the picture and remember more about the event; when, where and what was happening when the picture took place. It’s also easier to organize your pictures with this information on them. When we switched to digital cameras we found our camera did part of this task for us by embedding the date and time the picture was taken in the metadata of the picture. Having this information attached to your pictures makes it easy to keep them in chronological order. Once a year you should check your camera’s time and date stamp and make sure it is correct. Do it now, at the beginning of the year, and be sure all your photos for the year have accurate information. Not sure how to change it? Check your camera’s manual; instructions are usually near the beginning where you first set up your camera. Can’t find the manual? Google it, many are available on line. Now, if we could just get our cameras to record all the other details in the picture….
Backup Your Digital Photos
I bet you got some great pictures over the holidays – make sure they stay safe by downloading them and backing them up.
The single most important thing you can do to protect your photo collection is to back it up. Start with your digital photos. Why? First, there is a much higher probability of experiencing a technical failure than a natural disaster. Your printed photos have survived in their albums and boxes for many years. The digital photos on your computer live in a much riskier environment. It is no longer a matter of if your hard drive will crash; it’s a matter of when it will crash.
Second, you probably now own more digital photos than printed photos. You would lose a bigger piece of your photo collection if you lost the digital photos.
Third, your digital photos are most likely scattered across a number of devices. Your digital photos could be in your phone, in your old phone, in your camera(s), on old memory cards, in some files on your computer, on a flash drive somewhere, in your emails, on your partner’s phone…. they tend to be out of sight, out of mind. You may not even realize when some go missing.
There is a good rule to follow when backing up your digital photos – the 3-2-1 Rule. It states you should keep 3 copies of your entire photo collection, stored on 2 different types of media or devices, with 1 copy stored in a different physical location. What would this look like? Perhaps you will keep one copy on your computer’s hard drive, one copy on an external hard drive and one copy in a cloud based storage site.
You don’t need to clean your house before purchasing home insurance. Similarly, you do not need to have your digital photos perfectly organized to back them up. Gather all the photos you can find into one place. Back up the mess. If your computer crashes tomorrow you won’t care that your photos aren’t organized – you’ll just be relieved you still have them!
2018 New Year’s Resolution Course – Organize and Safely Store Your Print Photo Collection
Do you have print photos tucked away somewhere? In photo albums on your book shelves? Boxes of albums in your basement? Are your photos loose in a shoebox in your closet? Maybe you have inherited a photo collection from someone else and have no idea where to even start with it. Now is the time to tackle your print photo collection – in just 4 short weeks you will have it under control and be able to find any picture you need in a matter of minutes! Anyone else spent more time than they care to admit looking for a baby picture for your kid for school? Our print photo collection may be eclipsed by the digital chaos we now generate but there is something special about those old memories. Sometimes we don’t visit our print photos for long periods of time, yet when we do, we’re instantly transported to the times and stories they hold for us. Don’t let those memories fade away! Join us for this 4-week course which lays out all the steps to follow to get your print photos organized and stored as safely as possible. Once this process is done, it’s done! Our print photo collections don’t grow very quickly any more. Once they’re in order it’s very easy to keep them organized. ?
This course will consist of lessons emailed directly to your inbox each Friday. Each lesson is packed full of information about organizing your photos and the process is broken down into a few tasks for you to complete that week. Each step in the process identifies several options so you can make the best choices for your system. By the end of the four weeks you will have your print photo collection organized and safely stored to minimize further deterioration.
The course will begin on Friday, January 26. This gives you some time to get your digital photos downloaded and backed up so you can focus on your print photo collection. Registration is open now – visit the Contact Us page and let us know you will be joining us!