The topic of organizing personal photos can be so complicated and overwhelming that most of us avoid it altogether. It seems that digital files are even worse to work with than the photos we print out, at least for me. This is why, for months, all of my photos lay strewn out in my Lightroom catalogue, unseen and unprinted.

There was information out there to guide me, but it was so varied and abundant that I didn’t have the patience to sort through it all. I had this idea that I should set aside a day or week and only spend it on organizing my photos, including backing them up to a safe place and printing them all out. But I had over 4,000 photos to sort and edit, I didn’t have a hard drive, or a clue on to how to print all of my photos. Neither did I have the time to research any of the last two options. 

I don’t remember making a conscious decision about my situation, but eventually I made up my mind to at least organize my digital files. Here’s how I did it.

Organize

Once I actually began to sort in Lightroom, it was pretty simple. Figuring out the catalogue and folder system wasn’t but after several articles I understood the concept and began to work. What I did was make folders according to year, then to months, then to event’s, and finally to days. Each successive folder was a subfolder of the one above it, and was actually very simple to make. For example, in 2017 we had a family gathering at our place, and my folders looked something like this.

2017

 July

  07-(07-09) || Unger Campout

   07 || Day 1

   08 || Day 2

   09 || Day 3

Each intended title was a subfolder of the previous one, and I have found this system works very good for me. I use it in Lightroom, but I think other photo apps might be able to use a similar strategy. I also edit all my photos, so I further utilize this system by naming only the folders of photos I have edited. In Lightroom, the photos are automatically put into folders according to their dates, but all the ones that I have named I know I also edited. For instance, I know that 02-04 is a folder with unedited photos, but in the folder 02-04 || Of Snow and Light, all the photos have now been sorted and edited.

Store

This was a much more complicated matter. My laptop was filling up with thousands and thousands of photos that were taking up all the storage and making everything run slow. These were my photos that meant a lot to me, but were on a family device. It was as if I had all my personal clutter in a family room that meant to be shared and worked in. However, because of all my things, people found it hard to even enter the room, much less work in or enjoy it. But I wasn’t about trash all my things! I simply did not know what to do, and was desperate. I thought of buying myself another laptop, or numerous hard drives. Both were expensive options, and I didn’t even want to think of the researching involved. Finally, in desperation, I checked to see what my favourite youtuber at the time did with his photos. I discovered he used Lacie hard drives, and he even showed how he organized his footage on them. Normally I wouldn’t make such a hasty decision, but several days later I had ordered my own from Amazon. (Here’s a link if you’re interested.) I think it was one of the best pieces of equipment I ever bought. I have been so happy with it, and have no complaints! It gives me such peace of mind to know that, not only my photos but also those of my clients, are in a safe spot. This was one of the biggest and most relieving steps in cleaning up my photo mess.

Print

Ahh, the thing we are always told to do, but never actually get around to do it. I always knew I should do it, but it seemed so overwhelming that I didn’t even look into it. What really inspired me to change this was one of my clients. Several weeks after their photo session, I came to their house and saw their photos displayed all over their house in such creative ways. And I loved it! There is nothing more rewarding than seeing clients who appreciate your work enough to display it all over their homes. And that’s when I decided I should do at least a little something with my photos.

My first thought was photo albums. The printed out kind. But not only were they expensive, there were so many of different companies, and most of them outside of Canada. (It’s in these situations when you realize how rural you are) Again, YouTube came to my rescue. I discovered The Photo Book Guru , and, after a few videos, decided to give Mixbook a try. Again, it was slightly a hasty decision for me, but one I do not regret. Yes, they are pricy, but they have tons of sales, and every order I have made from them I was able to get 50% off or more. Plus, the quality is so good, and the service and set up of the actual book as well, that I gladly pay for it.

My plan is to print a photo book per year, including the best photos from that time. So far I have only done one (2017), but the only reason I haven’t done more is because I’m that far behind in sorting photos. But, as a gift for my aunt, I ordered her album of photos from our recent family gatherings. I know the company has fast shipping, but it was supposed to get to her house nearly a week after we left her place. (We visited them for the new year.) So I prayed that it would get there early, while we were still there. And, as God would have it, it did! I was so happy to be able to see her open on and witness her delight. She carried it with her everywhere she went, and the first evening she had it, all the aunts and cousins were booking turns to see it. I was not expecting the cousins to be so interested too, and I could have cried to see them all pouring over the book with such enthusiasm. It made it so worth it. I came home more convinced than ever to continue printing photos.

Well, that turned out to be way longer than I intended, so if most of you didn’t make it this far, I don’t blame you! I’m not sure how interested most of you were in this topic, but I know I would have loved something like this in times past, so I hope it is helpful to some of you.

Bianca