If my house were on fire and my family was safe, the first things I would grab are my photos, scrapbooks, laptop and hard drive. Would you agree? Although special, the rest of the things can be replaced . . . Murano glass gondola or Amalfi Coast painting on the wall, clothes, shoes, etc. We have all heard about the awful times of people losing photos from fire, flood, stolen or crashed computers, etc. Let's talk about organizing your vacation photos so you can reminisce and get excited about past memories and future travels. So now can we agree , PHOTOS ARE THE BEST SOUVENIR.
So how do you rescue the photos from your phone or the cloud and into photo books, scrapbooks or your favorite mode of viewing? I think I heard some of you say hire someone (just kidding).
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That time we celebrated our anniversary in Venice, I get chills every time I see this photo. I can almost hear the musician passionately serenading us through the quiet and quaint alleys of Venice. It was nothing short of magical and I purchased a murano glass gondola to remember the moment, but once we returned and reviewed photos . . . this photo evoked more emotion than the glass did and I keep returning.In my past Photo Organization Classes, it seemed much easier to organize printed photos. Digital photo organization can be very overwhelming, but with an action plan that fits your needs, you could soon be showcasing your photos and inspiring your family for future travel. You can adopt the same action plan you used for printed photos for digital photos. Here are a few steps to guide you through the process.
- Gather
- Sort
- Store
- Showcase
1. Gather
One method I used for gathering my travel photos was creating a few folders in Shutterfly: France, Italy, Ireland, Barbados, Exuma, etc. I moved all photos from my phone and computer to these folders in Shutterfly and shared the login with my family so that they could upload their photos as well. Then as time allows, I begin creating a few pages at a time until I'm ready to print the digital photo book highlighting my favorite travel photos.
It occurred to me that I skipped a step in my organization. With printed photos, I had used a Photo Box with divisions by years, then subdivided to months to consolidate and sort my photos. The digital answer is to create a folder on your desktop named "To Be Organized or Scrapbooked" to gather them all into one place, then subdivide by year. Then create subfolders by months or location. I recommend choosing a program or app to assist in gathering your travel photos from all of your devices and you may even want to scan printed photos to add to your digital file. Here are just a few examples: Google Photos, MacPhotos with photo duplicates cleaner or PhotoSync are some examples. If you want more details, here are two links that may be helpful: Tom's Guide or Organizing your Digital Photo Collection. Going forward, I plan to use an app called PhotoSync to consolidate all of my travel photos to "take the pain out of moving your photos", I also like the idea that it will eliminate duplicate files. I would love to hear if you have a tool that you love for gathering across multiple devices and sorting by theme or year.
2. Sort
Next, sort your travel photos by time and location. This is where a program or app is handy sorting by people, places or dates. A couple suggestions are Magix Photo Manager, Photo Organizer by Systweak, Google Photos or Adobe Bridge. Based on this blog, Adobe Bridge is the best value.
3. Store
This is something you will want to carefully consider prior to choosing the tools above. Remember, free always comes with a few compromises. Consider security, photo compression for cloud services or an external hard drive. Some people suggest both. Some examples are Carbonite, Google Drive, and DropBox. For more details, you may want to read Consumer Reports Guide.
4. Showcase
My favorite part about organizing my photos is my ability to create a digital photo book for myself and traveling companions so we can relive these wonderful travel memories. As mentioned above, it's a sure way to get my husband inspired to start planning our next travel adventure.
I hope you are inspired to organize your travel photos, print a photo book and share these memories with your family and friends.
When you are inspired to plan your next adventure, we are here for you.