Why is it important to organize our photos?
Our camera rolls have become a source of stress and overwhelm. People often feel ashamed by the number of photos in their camera roll. We have forgotten that photos are supposed to bring us JOY! They represent all the blessings in our life we have decided to document.
But because our camera rolls are large and hard to navigate/find what we need, it’s become difficult to ENJOY those photos. Once our photos are organized and properly backed up, we can restore the FUN of photos again. We can USE the photos in exciting ways like making photo books, creating custom videos, easily ordering photo gifts, and more.
What stops most people from organizing their photos?
Fear and uncertainty. Fear of making a mistake and losing valuable photos. And a lack of confidence around technology. Also a lack of time (we’re all busy!).
(If this is something you want to do but aren't sure how, checkout my
Backup Bootcamp™)
What’s the most common mistake you see people make with organizing photos?
The most common mistake is that most people tend to start with the JUNK. They sit down and start scrolling back through their camera roll, deleting blurry photos or screenshots until they quickly get tired and abandon the project.
My advice is IGNORE the junk for now and instead focus on what matters most. In my opinion this is getting all of your photos into ONE place and then creating a solid backup system.
Once those two steps are complete, you can come back to the junk/cleanup or you can focus on using/enjoying the photos instead if THAT matters more to you!
I’m overwhelmed! Where should I start?
Name where your photos currently reside. Part of our overwhelm stems from the fact that photos are scattered in many, many places instead of in one central, searchable hub. So write down a list of the places your photos/videos are currently saved (ex: cloud services, old hard drives, old computers, CDs, etc). Truly, just write them down.
Then what?
Establish a Digital Photo Hub. Typically this ‘hub’ can live on an external hard drive so you have sufficient space- most of our computers these days don’t have the space we need!
Copy ALL those photo sources you listed above into ONE place! This step can be time consuming but it’s SO WORTH it! Once your photos are all in ONE place, you can use technology to help you! Things like automatic duplicate removal to clean up, facial recognition and keyword search to find what you need faster, and automatic memories to experience lost moments again. It's fun!
Anything else you wish everyone knew about keeping their photos safe?
Yes! This applies to iPhone users. Many people don’t understand that iCloud is a SYNC not a BACKUP. Even if you see those photos on multiple devices, I only consider it ONE copy.
iCloud can save you if your device dies, but because it’s a sync when you delete one place, it’s deleted everywhere. I’ve seen WAY too many people delete things off their phone thinking they were “safe in iCloud” without realizing deleting from their phone IS deleting from iCloud.
Backup best practice is to have THREE copies of your photos so if your photos are currently only in iCloud, prioritize making an additional copy. An external hard drive is my personal favorite.
