Say Cheese! ...now what?

ORGANIZATION, April 2009, Jenny McKee

SAY CHEESE!
...now what?

Dear Jenny,

Here's where my mess is... in my camera! I have thousands of photos of me and my friends, my cat, my family, and stuff for my Facebook page. I spend hours trying to find a photo I took before and I forget where it is. My friend thinks my computer is so slow because of all the pics I have but I don't want to delete them!!! Any tips?

Holly-Bee, 15, Pickering, ON

Hi Holly-Bee,
You’re not alone! The great part about digital cameras is that you can take so many fantastic pictures. It’s also one of the drawbacks! Your thousands of photos aren’t really getting appreciated if you can’t find them! Here are five ways to keep your pictures organized and easy to find.

BE CLEAR ON THE YEAR!
The first way to group photos is to set up folders by year. (ie 2008, 2009) Each time you download pictures from your digital camera, store them in a unique named subfolder of that year. If you have photos already downloaded from the past, drag and drop them into the year it was taken.

THE NAME GAME!
Naming your subfolders is the most important part in finding the pictures you want. It needs to be something to trigger your memory of what is inside. Pictures from your girlfriends sleepover could be called “Holly’s Sleepover”. Photos of your animals could be “Pet Pics”. Keep it simple and logical. You can also rename the individual photos within the folders by right clicking and then “rename”. You can change it to the person's name or write a caption describing the picture.

DELETE THE DUDS!
We all have pictures with eyes half closed, mouths open... why hang onto them? When you’re downloading your pictures or going through old pictures, delete any that are out of focus or just don't do justice to the person or activity.

GET YOUR BACK UP!
Be sure to back up your pictures on a disk or external hard drive. There are also many online photo sites that will save and hold all your pictures to view and share. Get in the habit of backing things up and you’ll never lose an important picture.

PRINT AND ENJOY!
You may not want to print all your pictures, but it’s nice to have special ones for picture frames, scrapbooks or albums. If you want to print some but not all of your pictures, make a subfolder that is “to print” and as you find ones you want to print copy them into that folder. When you’re ready to print, they’ll all be there in one spot.

Start by working with your most recently downloaded pictures and then work back. You'll get more satisfaction of seeing your recent things done and it won't feel as daunting.

Pictures are a great way to capture special moments and give you reminders of all the great things you’ve done over the years. By organizing them and keeping them simple you’ll have no trouble finding and sharing your pictures with family and friends.

~ Jenny