Digital Photo Organization Ideas

Yipee!  I have a new camera!  I've had such a void in my life ever since my dear Kodak died, this past March.  (I'm only slightly joking.)  Well I am thankful for parents and step-parents and an aunt who all sent me money for my birthday earlier this month.  I had just enough between them to buy a Nikon Coolpix L610 (red version!) that was highly rated by Consumer Reports.  I'm starting to figure out how to use it.

Hunter was excited too.  He set up my new camera for me and then immediately asked for my old camera to take apart.

This past February, I did a blog post asking for help handling "digital photo overload."  I heard from quite a number of you, most having the same problem.  However, a couple people e-mailed me with some good ideas they had.  Since I now have my new camera, and that means a ridiculous amount of more photos, I thought I better review those tips.  (This summer I am busy trying to get rooms in our house painted, organized, etc. so it will probably be fall when I really dig in and get started on my photos.)  Here are my favorite.

Ginny shared a link to a blog called Clover Lane entitled "How I Organize My Photos."  I really like the photo albums pictured in this article and hope to eventually get some.  Ginny said that she personally bought some photo cases (see example on Ebay here) from Michaels and spent a few days organizing all of her family's photos in them.  (I really like the smaller plastic cases which all fit inside the big case.  That way if it is dropped, everything won't spill everywhere.  That is my number one fear with my photo boxes!)

I really like both of these ideas because in my family, we tend to look at albums but we rarely pull out one of my photo boxes to look at pictures.  But of course we could never afford to print and put every picture we take into a photo album.  (Plus we wouldn't have room for that!)  So I will keep going with some in photo cases and some in matching albums.

Tesha sent me several links to a photography blog called Lil Blue Boo which has wonderful photo organizing tips.  Of course there are lots of great photography tips too!  I'd like to spend some time reading through this blog.  On the homepage, if you scroll down you will see a section called "Photo Printing, Organization, and Back Up."  There are several posts here.  Here is a step-by-step post that must have been written for me called "How to Organize and Print Years Worth of Photos."  I really liked this one too:  "Tips for Creating Simple and Timeless Photo Albums."

Here is a post from Large Families on Purpose about why they changed from paper scrapbooking to digital, called "Family Scrapbooking."  I really love making things with my hands, but I definitely see wisdom in digital scrapbooks.

the next round of lilies in Lilly's garden are starting to bloom

 Finally, I want to urge you - BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS!  And not just in one place, but two at least.  I had most of mine on an expansion drive which some how ended up getting corrupted.  These included all my Lilly photos.  I would have been devastated except that I had backed up photos on CD through June 2010.  And I have just about every picture I have ever taken with my digital cameras uploaded to Shutterfly.  Shutterfly will make dvd backups of your photos, for a fee of course, but I am so so thankful as I will get my Lilly photos that way.  (And of course we have many other valuable family pictures I want to keep.  It's just that the idea of losing Lilly photos is the most traumatic because I know I can never take another one of her.)

Here are a few pictures I took outside today:

Nutmeg - sadly I don't think she's pregnant

My favorite chicken from the latest batch - a Brahma named "Owl"

Exhaust Pipe - the sweet dog with the funny name

Dixie and Sherlotta Holmes (we call Sherlotta "Spazlotta" at times!)

Tabby has opened an Etsy shop! SEE HERE.  (The shop's name is "The Goat Chick.")  One of her items for sale is an "Herbal Mix for Majestic Poultry."  This is an herb mix she made which has herbs to help with the chickens general healthy, respiratory health, laying stimulants, and orange egg yolk.  We got the idea from the wonderful book Fresh Eggs Daily.  She is selling 7 oz. bags for $7.00.

We just sprinkle some into their feeders every few days and they all gobble it up:

We're also stocked up on The Goat Chick's Udderly Natural Goats' Milk Soap.  This has got to be some of the healthiest soap for your skin you can buy.  :)

May God bless your week!