Photos and Digital Hoarding: A Growing Problem

I recently read an article on digital hoarding.  It was definitely eye opening and it made me realize that I am actually an email hoarder.  I have thousands of emails still sitting in my three in-boxes.  I haven't deleted them because whenever I go to do so, I stop myself, thinking I may need something in them down the road.  This is really not a good strategy.  Chances are I won't need anything in these emails and if I do, most likely I can find it on Google or ask for it to be re-sent.

I have a much easier time with photos.  Maybe it's because I've been in the industry for many years.  There are lots of photos we take that we really don't need.  With digital, we can take 100 pictures of the beautiful sunset on our Hawaiian vacation.  But really we could probably do with one or two of those, and delete the rest.  Those other 98 are taking up space on your hard drive, cluttering your computer, and slowing your computer down.  Not only that, it slows you down too, because the more pictures you have, the more time it takes to find the one you need!  Multiply this by the extra pictures taken at your child's soccer game, family events, and everyday moments, and this can add up to a lot of extra photos clogging your computer!  When you download your pictures, do you go back and delete the photos you don't need?  Most people don't.

I actually go through the deleting process a second time in a lot of cases.  When I download my pictures (and I try to do it as soon as possible after the event), I go through and delete the ones I don't need immediately.  By doing this, it's a quick and easy job versus something that becomes more overwhelming the more you let it pile up.  But I also take a lot of pictures that I share.  I don't need all those pictures, but I take them because I know how much other people appreciate them.  I upload them to a photosharing app and cloud storage app called Linea, and share them with the others from the event.  If anyone else at the event was taking pictures, they can also upload them to the same "Line" of photos, allowing everyone that was at the event to view all the photos in ONE place, add comments and captions, and export any of the photos they want back to their own computer in the same resolution that they were uploaded in.  Linea is a free app, and it works on PC and Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android.  I like this because everyone in my family uses something different.  Its also private and secure.  The only people that can see your photos are the ones you shared them with.  If, like me, you have a lot of photos to store, you may want to consider a subscription for unlimited cloud storage.   There are lots of other sites you can use to store your photos such as Dropbox, Carbonite, Flickr, Picasa, and more but I personally like the viewing mosaic and other features of Linea that I mentioned above.  But for the record, I am a Dropbox and SmugMug user too.

Once I've uploaded to Linea, sometimes I go back and delete other pictures I know I won't need.  For example, I take a lot of pictures for my kids' sports teams.  At a game, I might take hundreds of pictures.  Ultimately, I don't need all those pictures.  I really only need and want the ones of my own children.  So I go back and delete the others from my computer after the season is over and I've shared the photos.

My backup system consists of cloud storage for my photos, and an external hard drive for all of my files.  My photos are the one thing on my computer I'd be devastated about if I lost, so they're backed up in several different ways.  One thing to note when you are backing up everything to the cloud, make sure your photos are being backed up in full resolution.  In the last few weeks during my photo organizing seminars, twice I have run into people who have used cloud storage companies to back up their entire computer.  Unfortunately these two people had their computers crash and had to rely on the cloud storage company to retrieve their data.  In these particular cases, their photo files came back as thumbnails.  They weren't saved in the original resolution and so for all intensive purposes, these folks lost their photos, because you really can't do much with thumbnails.  Needless to say, they were devastated.  So, do your research when choosing a cloud storage option.  But, cloud storage should be part of your backup plan, regardless of who you use.

If you want to read more about digital hoarding, check out this article from the Wall Street Journal.  As for me, I think I am going to go clean out one of my in-boxes.  Maybe I will find it easier if I do it one in-box at a time!  What about you?  Are you a digital hoarder?

The Disorganized Chaos of My Photo Life

by M. Shannon Hernandez

I am a VERY organized person.  I have a notebook and calendar in which I record everything for my business (on paper, with a pen), and then promptly transfer the information over to the computer and place on my blog, in my newsletter, into my digital filing system, or on the calendar.  All my spices are neatly labeled, on the top of the jar, so that I can find what I need quickly when I open the drawer and peer down.  I have 16 upcycled spaghetti sauce jars, all lined up in a row, which have been labeled with a professional label maker and hold my dried beans, rice varieties, lentils and grains.  I only buy purses and backpacks with a minimum of 3 pockets and pouches for easy identification of all the "stuff" that must go into the bag.  I have over 2,000 books, and they are categorized by genre on the shelves of my office and living room.  And my closet?  All pants hang in one section, by color, all skirts in another, by color, and all my blouses...you get the point!

But, something has happened in my photo life!  Mounds of photos sit in bags separated by theme or trip or event.  (I must give myself a little credit.)  Unfinished scrapbooks, complete with notes of what will go where, have been on my shelf for YEARS.  A single ziplock bag holds all of my photos and momentos from a magnificent trip I took to Ireland in 2005.  My wedding album of two years ago is collecting dust, and so are the photos sitting next to it!  Photo storage boxes, albeit with tagged organizers, are stacked -- cluttered with pictures begging me to document my life.

And these are just the printed photos.

Let's talk about the digital photos.  My life is a wreck!  I have pictures on my iPhone camera (current count 1523), photos I have loaded in Instagram, pics hanging out on the Project365 calendar, and all over Twitter and Facebook.  I have a mass storage device, which has over 19,000 photos waiting to be....???  What?  I don't even know where to begin.  I can't find photos I know I have because I haven't tagged them or named the albums when I imported them.  (I knew I should have--but just kept telling myself, "I would 'get to it.'")  My family uploads albums and albums to photo sharing sites like Picasa and Snapfish.  At one time, I was religious about following the links and viewing and printing the ones I wanted, but then the email notifications started sitting in my inbox, later to be deleted because of this feeling of adding more to the chaos of my photo life made me panic.

I am overwhelmed.  I need help.  And until a month ago, I had no idea where to begin.

I met Michelle Nahom, Marketing Manager for the Association of Personal Photo Organizers, via Twitter.  I was astounded!  Wow -- there were really people that would help you organize your photos?  I began following her blog, and then I had the opportunity to meet her at a photo organizing seminar she held in conjunction with Arista Camera in Bronxville, NY.  At the seminar, I listened, in awe to the number of people who were completely at a loss in their photo organizing, just like me.  Stories were shared of massive amounts of family memories and history being lost because the computer crashed or the hard drive was lost, or the online photo sharing site went out of business or accidentally deleted their files.  I learned I was a photo hoarder--and my husband too!  We fit the definition "to a T"--2,127 of our photos are either of sunsets or flowers.  I mean really--who needs 2,127 photos of anything, let alone sunsets or flowers?!

I left that seminar feeling empowered to change my disorganized digital photo life.  I have laid out my own personal plan for "dealing" with all of these pictures.  One night a week, I am purging photos--getting rid of the duplicates, blurry photos, or photos that don't even have a story.  It's a start.  The next phase will include creating categories and event titles, thus organizing them by theme.  After all of this, I plan on consulting with Michelle again and figuring out how I want to display certain photos throughout my home.

The biggest revelation I had at the seminar (besides how much help I needed!) was that I was not enjoying my photos, which are living memories of my past.  Not only was I not enjoying them, but I was not able to share them with other people, because I had "hidden" them away in digital files I couldn't track, name, or find.

If you have "found yourself" in any part of this story, I encourage you to start small, just like I did.  Follow Michelle's blog and Pinterest boards for practical tips and visual solutions to getting organized.  Begin going through your photos one night a week.  (To be honest, this "task" has turned into a "jog down memory lane" and I look so forward to it, because I am reliving my memories as I "work.")  Attend a photo organizing seminar in your community.  You can find Michelle's events on her Event tab on her blog.  The key is to take small steps in your personal quest of photo organization, so you can get them off your computer and shelves, and begin enjoying the visual memories of your past!

M. Shannon Hernandez, owner and designer of Sage & Time Designs, is a stationary designer in Brooklyn, New York.  She works closely with clients around the world to design handcrafted and custom stationary for their personal and social lives.  As a result of attending Michelle's seminar, she is now using a photo sharing software for her clients called Linea.  Linea also offers cloud based storage and syncs across all devices including PC and Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android, so your photos are accessible to you anywhere, anytime.  Linea has been a tremendous resource for organizing event design concepts, drafts of stationary designs, and inspiration boards in one, private location.  Both Shannon and her clients comment with feedback, on the photos in Linea, thus keeping all the design details of upcoming events in one place, which provides perfect tracking, excellent written and visual communication, and superior customer service.  You can learn more about Shannon on her blog, on Facebook at Sage & Time Designs, and Twitter @SageTimeDesigns.

Favorite Pet Photo Contest

Do you have a favorite pet photo?  Do you like to try out new programs?  Here's your chance to show off your favorite pet photo and try out a new photosharing program at the same time!

The rules:
1) Go to my Facebook page Creative Photo Solutions, "Like" my page and leave me your email address so I can invite you to my Favorite Pet Photo line on Linea.

2) Once you have your invitation, download Linea onto your computer, and add your favorite pet photo or photos.  You can add as many pet photos as you would like.

3) Double click on your favorite photos, click on the + sign and add a comment.

4) Our contest ends Sunday night - the photo with the most comment wins!  Want more comments?  Tell your friends to come by my FB page, give me a "Like" and ask for an invite to the line of photos!

The prize: 
A copy of Beyond Snapshots  (a great book on how to take better photos!) by Rachel Devine and Peta Mazey!

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!

Downsizing Memories...Helping Your Parents With This Important Project

When our parents downsize, what will happen to their memories?  



Many seniors have boxes upon boxes of old photos and slides, albums, home movies in obsolete formats, and memorabilia.  Trying to organize all of this can be an overwhelming task.   Because it's hard to know where to start, often times these memories stay tucked away in a box.


I believe our memories are important.  Our photos are for sharing, and also for remembering.  They deserved to be preserved and enjoyed!  


But how do we go about doing that?  


Old photo albums can be scanned and digitized, and turned into coffee table style photobooks, which are lighter, take up less space, and are much easier to store.  Boxes of photos can be sorted (more on sorting in another blog), scanned and shared with other family members using Linea (photosharing and photo archiving all in one), and possibly turned into a life story photobook.  A nice thing about sharing on Linea is that other family members can add photos to the same line, and add comments about those pictured as well, keeping all of your old family photos and information about those photos in one easily accessible place.  Being able to view them in a beautiful mosaic on your computer is a big plus as well!  Family members are also able to export them to their own computers, allowing sharing to come full circle.  


Slides can also be scanned, and stored on DVD, as well as uploaded to Linea.  Important memorabilia should also be dealt with the same way.  Old home movies can be converted to current formats by a professional, so that your parents can continue to enjoy them.  It's easy enough to make extra copies for multiple family members.  


To help you with this process, you may want to consider contacting a photo organizer.  Photo organizers are trained to help you with all your photo management needs and will work with you to come up with a plan that meets your budget as well.  To see what types of projects a photo organizer might help you with, here's a military memoir created about a WWII veteran. 


Let's not let our history be lost!  Our family stories should be enjoyed now...and preserved for future generations.  What steps are you taking to preserve your family stories? 

No Time Like the Present to Preserve Your Family's Memories

Photos tell our the stories of our lives.  Yet we are often are overwhelmed by our photo collections. Many of us have shoeboxes and drawers full of photos, we have digital pictures on our computers in various places, as well as CDs and DVDs, multiple memory cards, and home movies in formats we can no longer view.  Your family's history is important and should be preserved so you can enjoy it today and pass it along to future generations!  Here's some tips to help you get started.  

Find a system that works for you.  The ABC’s of Photo Organizing© are a great place to start.  This is a method taught by photo organizers from the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.  Your A’s are the photos that belong in albums.  They are personal and cherished.  B’s are photos that you don’t want to get rid of, but they don’t necessarily need to be in an album.  They should be organized for long term storage into an archival box, or backed up. The C’s can go into the can, either the garbage can or deleted on your computer.  These are the blurry, or unflattering photos, the duplicates, and the photos you simply don’t need, such as extra scenery photos or people you no longer remember.  The S stands for stories, and this is the most important part!  Your stories will be told in your albums alongside your A pictures.

Make sure you are storing your photos in a safe environment.  Photos should be stored in a cool dark place where there isn’t much fluctuation in the temperature.  You also want to avoid humidity and direct sunlight.  Attics, basements, and garages are NOT good storage spots!  In addition to where you store your photos, you should also consider what you store them in.  Make sure you are storing your photos in a photo safe environment and use reputable products.  You probably have noticed that photos that you have in those old magnetic albums have started to yellow or fade.  You’ll want to remove your pictures from those types of albums.

Scan your old photos.  If you’d like to have a digital copy of old photos, or would like to pass photos along to other family members, scanning is a great option.  You may find having a portable scanner like the Flip Pal that you can bring with you on the go is handy to have.  This is really useful when one family member has a photo that everyone wants, but doesn't want to "loan" it to you. 

Restore special photos.  You may have certain special photos you’d like to restore.  Perhaps they’ve faded, been torn, or even crumpled up.  There are many great types of photo editing software out there, but if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, you can work with a service provider that offers photo restoration. 

Digitize old media.  With technology constantly changing, it’s an ongoing process to archive old media. Your old home movies can be converted to current technology, but keep in mind, as technology changes, you will need to change with it, which most likely will mean re-recording again at some point.  If you don’t want to invest in the equipment to do this yourself, there are many services that can handle this for you. 

Back it up.  I always recommend having at least three backups.  I use a cloud based storage system, an external hard drive, and I print my photos in photo books as well.  One of the great things about photo books is you can journal your stories alongside of your photos and you can order multiple copies for family members (and reprint if needed)!  I also print special photos that I want an extra copy of and store them in a photo safe box.  Having a printed copy is a great backup because a print can always be scanned and digitized.  While it may not be realistic to print all of your photos, you may want to consider printing your most important ones. 

Share your photos with family members through a cloud based service.  Before choosing cloud backup storage, make sure it offers the options that you are looking for.  Some things to consider: Your viewing and sharing options, how easy it is to get your photos back, and whether you and others can comment on the photos.  Linea is a new photosharing app that I am now using.  I really like the fact that anyone I share my “line” with can add photos to it, allowing me to keep all photos from a certain event in the same place even when multiple people are taking pictures.  Everyone can comment on them as well, which is helpful when you’ve uploaded old family photos in which you’re trying to identify people or learn the stories behind the photos.  

Preserve your family’s stories now.  Unfortunately stories get lost through the years.  Consider sitting with older relatives with a recorder and documenting their stories, or using one of the many journals out there with writing prompts.  Check out A Grandparent’s Legacy, by Thomas Nelson or other similar type of journals.  Do the same thing with treasured family recipes…if there is a handwritten version of the recipe, you may want to preserve that.  There’s always a story behind those special recipes!  Don’t forget to write down your own stories as you are going through this process…not only are your family stories important to your family now, they will be treasured by future generations!

What are you doing to make sure your memories are preserved for future generations?  We’d love to hear your suggestions! 

A Photo a Week

Every year I think about doing a Project 365, where you take one photo each day to document your year.  While I love the idea, realistically I know it won’t happen for me.  I’ll forget one day and then be disappointed and give up on my project. So I decided that a better goal for me to start with is one picture a week...Project 52.

Most weeks I take more than one picture; some weeks I take hundreds.  But when I look back at my photos from 2011, most of them revolve around my kids’ sports, holidays, vacations, or fun activities.  It definitely adds up to a lot of digital photos!  But I’d like to have more photos of our “everyday” life. 

I took tons of “everyday” life photos when the kids were little…as they’ve gotten older, I find myself documenting less of those moments.  So my New Year’s Photo Resolution is one photo a week, motivating me to take photos of moments that might otherwise be forgotten.

My plan is to store these photos on Linea, and add my journaling in.  At the end of the year, I might just do an album of my 52 “everyday” moment photos!

Anyone care to join me and document more of your "everyday" moments?

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!