One of my New Year's resolutions was to catch up on getting my digital photos put into albums. I had planned on doing this two years ago as well, at which point I got three albums done, through 2010, but then I didn't do any more and fell behind again. I could easily have ignored the project for another year, falling even further behind, but early in the year I faced what I thought was a storage crisis on my computer hard drive. It turned out that it was actually a problem with my backup drive not recognizing my hard drive due to an operating system upgrade, but before I figured that out, I went wild sorting through the photos from the time I got my computer, deleting the most egregiously blurry or awful images and transferring M's pictures (eight trillion lego photos) onto a memory stick. It took most of a snow day and several evenings, but once I got through all of 2011 I uploaded and ordered an album.
I found I still take photos of the same things I noticed last time--birthdays and camping trips and kids eating ice cream (and oh, my goodness, how could they have been such little guys only four years ago!!)
I also found proof that yes, we always have snow on Easter.
I only got through half of 2012 before my wrists and eyes rebelled and then I resolved my imagined storage problem and the project lost its urgency. I was afraid that I might put off assembling more albums for another few years and lose all hope of ever catching up, but then around St. Patrick's Day, I found myself feeling homesick for Ireland and decided to put together an album from my trip there in 2013.
I added in photos that our instructor took while we were there and actually did some post-processing on my pictures, which is something I've only recently started doing (and which adds more time to the process). This album documenting ten days turned out almost as big as my year-long albums. Going back through all of those images was such a nice way to relive that amazing trip (and make me yearn for another one!).
I love having our photos on the shelf where we can pull them out and look at them anytime, without firing up a screen. I also love how little space they take up compared to traditional photo albums (I have an entire bookshelf at the top of the stairs devoted to my pre-digital albums). Now I just have to figure out how to keep up the momentum and get 2012 through 2015 done before the end of the year.
How do you manage your digital photos?
The albums look lovely. And you go, keep up the good work, here's hoping you get the rest done before the year is done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kim!
DeleteI really need to do this too, I haven't done one for years. We take so many photos now that everything is digital that it gets a bit overwhelming going through them all. Your albums look lovely :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! It is super overwhelming. One year at a time seems to be all I can manage.
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