World Backup Day

Did you know World Backup day is March 31?  When was the last time you backed up your photo files?  Unfortunately backing up is something most of us don't think about until it is too late.  I'm sure you know someone who has lost some or all of their photos at some point in time...or paid a large sum of money to have those photos retrieved after a computer crash.

Creating a secure backup is important.  Not only should your photos be accessible, but you should also be able to recover them in the event of a computer crash, natural disaster or theft without it being a difficult or financially prohibitive process.

To accomplish this, you're going to want to backup and archive in several ways.  An external hard drive should be part of your backup plan.  However, keep in mind that research shows external hard drives have a limited shelf life of five years or so.  If you keep your external hooked up to your computer for backups that happen on a regular basis and your computer is stolen...the thief is probably going to take your external hard drive too.  That happened to a friend of mine.  Her computer was stolen right out of her house, with the external hard drive attached.  She lost a couple years worth of pictures.

You may also want to consider Picture Keeper.  Picture Keeper has built in software that searches for and saves your photos in their original file structure.  It's easy to use, because it's programmed to find your photos for you.  The next time you plug it back in, it'll find the new photos, as well as those that have been edited.

You'll also want to take advantage of cloud storage options.  One of my favorites for photos is Linea for its photosharing and beautiful viewing capabilities, but I also use Dropbox on a regular basis.  When considering a cloud storage service, you may want to consider privacy and security, and you should make sure you can retrieve your images and export them back to your computer in the same resolution you uploaded them at.  You also want to make sure the site stores your images on more than one server.

Another backup option is copying your photos onto archival quality CDs or DVDs and storing them away from your home.  Fires and natural disasters, while not regular occurrences, can happen.  However, remember if you store on CDs or DVDs, you will need to re-record at some point, as technology changes.


And last but certainly not least, the printed photo is your best backup!  Printed photos are not vulnerable to technological obsolescence and can last hundreds of years if stored properly!

If you need help with coming up with a backup plan for your photos, the professionals at the Association of Personal Photo Organizers can help.  Check out the APPO site for a personal photo organizer in your area.

Check out the World Backup Day site for more backup solutions!

Organizing Your Photos Can Be as Easy Using Your ABC's!

If you have boxes upon boxes of printed photos in closets and drawers, and digital photos scattered all over your computer, you're not alone.  Like many others, you probably find yourself somewhat overwhelmed by the task of organizing them.  This process doesn't have to be intimidating though!

Organizing your photos can be as easy as using your ABC's!  At the Association of Personal Photo Organizers, we teach a method called the ABC's of Photo Organizing™, developed by Founder Cathi Nelson, to help people work through the sorting process.    

The first step is to gather all your photos into one spot, whether on the table or on the computer.  Then you'll start making decisions on what to save and toss.  If you have digital photos all over your computer, you might want to consider using Picture Keeper to round up all of your pictures.  All you have to do is insert your Picture Keeper into any USB port on your computer, and it will automatically go and find all of the photos (rather than you having to go find them in various places on your computer yourself!).  This gives you an easy way to corral all those photos, and then you can put them back into the software of your choice to organize them.  Check out About.com's Top Digital Photo Software Picks for Family Photos if you need help deciding which software to use.

Once you've established which software you are going to use for your digital photos, you're ready to move on to the ABC's.  

A is for Album.  Your A photos belong in an album or a photo book.  They are personal and cherished...they have stories behind them.  If you are sorting printed photos, you'll simply place them into an A pile.  If you're working with digital photos, you'll be tagging them with a flag or a rating.

B is for Box.  Not every photo needs to go into an album.  However, that doesn't mean they aren't significant to you.  Your B photos should be organized into an archival storage box.  Printing your photos is the best way to preserve them.  The printed photo is stable, and can last hundreds of years if stored properly.  They aren't susceptible to computer crashes or technical obsolescence.  When you pass away, your relatives are more likely to keep your printed photos than your digital files.  You also should consider using a photo labeling pencil to keep track of the who, what, when on the back of these photos.  

C is for the Can...whether it's a digital trash can or a physical one.  Give yourself permission to throw away the photos you don't need...you know, the blurry ones, the duplicates, the ones with the heads cut off, and the people you no longer know.  With digital photos, I try to download my photos as soon as possible after taking pictures and delete the ones I don't need right away.  Because we take so many more pictures with digital cameras than we ever did with film, we're likely have a lot of duplicates.  If you took 50 pictures of the sunset on your Hawaiian vacation, you probably only need one or two of them.  By paring them down right away, it's a bite size chunk of work versus becoming an overwhelming task if you wait months or years.

S is for the Story.  This is the most important part.  We're a people of stories.  Throughout history we have  used storytelling to communicate and document our lives.  Your stories typically accompany your A photos, and these memories are important to you, your children and future generations.  Sometimes a poorly composed photo is actually significant because of its story.  Consider this picture of this tree from my front yard.  To you, it's just a tree.  But to me, it was our first Christmas tree with our first child. We planted it after the holidays and now its a beautiful evergreen!

Now that you've sorted your photos into the ABC's, you may be wondering what the next step is.  In my next blog, we'll talk about themes and how you can use themes to organize in a way that makes sense for a lifetime of photos.  

New Year's Photo Resolutions

Photos are powerful...they're key to memory preservation.  So...to kick off the New Year, I thought I would suggest a few "Photo Resolutions!"

Don't forget your camera.  The best camera is the one you have with you.  Make sure you have a way to record memories as they happen, whether its with your camera phone or another camera of choice!

Use your camera manual.  Your camera manual is a wealth of information, including how to set your date properly!   Knowing the date the photo was taken may be important when you are telling "your stories" as well.  Understanding your camera's functions can also help you become a better photographer. If you've misplaced it, I highly recommend going online and printing yourself a copy.  I refer back to mine all the time!

Download those photos.  Interestingly enough, many people see the memory cards as storage and don't actually download their photos.  Memory cards can fail, and aren't considered a good way to store your photos.  It also can get expensive to continually buy new memory cards.  Download your photos as soon as possible after taking the pictures.

Delete the bad photos right away.  Take the time for a quick run through and delete the duplicate and bad photos right away.  If you wait till you have months worth of photos (or even years), it then becomes an overwhelming task. Plus, there's no point in saving pictures you don't need on your computer, taking up valuable space.

Back up!  Backing up is an often forgotten step until your hard drive crashes and its too late.  I suggest backing up in at least 3 places.  Of course your printed photo is your best backup, but other great choices include external hard drives, Picture Keeper or cloud storage such as Linea. 

• Picture Keeper is a USB device with software already installed that simply goes and finds your photo files on its own.  Future backups are easy, because it only copies your newly added photos, or those you have made changes to. 
• Linea is a photo organizing and photosharing app that allows you store your photos in the cloud (and retrieve them at any time) and share them with family and friends safely and securely.  Your family and friends can even add photos to lines you have shared with them, allowing you to keep all your photos from the same event in one place!

Make your memories part of your everyday life!  Resolve to enjoy your memories more.  How many of us take the pictures and then just let them sit on our computer, never to be looked at again?  Print some out and put them in frames, make a photo collage or a photo book, or even a calendar.  We just got Apple tv and we let the photos scroll on our television during the day sometimes.  The kids love walking by and seeing themselves on the screen!

Take a class.  If you'd like to improve your photography skills, consider taking a class like the ones offered from Big Picture Classes.  Here's one that recently caught my eye! Get Great Photos with Any Camera 

Get help if you need it.  If you are struggling with what to do with your photos, memorabilia and other media, consider hiring a personal photo organizer.  A PPO can help you find the right solutions to meet your needs, whether its simply sitting down with you and teaching you the steps to get organized or actually creating keepsakes for you.  Check out The Association of Personal Photo Organizers to find an organizer near you.  If you're the type of person who is always helping others with their photos, you may want to consider a career as a photo organizer.  APPO offers training, support, a well developed website, individual profile pages for its members, marketing expertise, and more.

Here's to enjoying your memories in 2012!  Happy New Year everyone!