travelprincess

I need help!!!! Years and years of pictures!!!! All different sizes!!!! Lots of boxes, albums. I started scanning (takes forever) and thought perhaps I'd have them all printed anew as some were in those terrible plastic sticky albums and were fading.The albums are falling apart too.This way they'd all be the same size and fit in new albums. I'm saving them on CD's and Picasa (the ones since I got a digital camera) but can't shlepp my computer around when I want to show them off.
Any unique ideas?? TIA.

suze

The ones that are organized, I keep index-card style... in shoebox shaped baskets, they are all 4x6 or 3x5 vacation photos. Unforunately loads more are tossed in a couple large wicker trunks. I have too many photos to attempt albums. Obviously I need help (and look forward to creative replies)!!
suze

p.s. I don't want to go digital, I don't think.

NeoPatrick

After each trip, all my 4X6 pictures go into an album which I label. I have a lot of those albums and we do take them out and look at them from time to time. I have NO desire to ever go digital, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've "shared" my pictures with others. They are for our own enjoyment.

connecticutyankee

Organize?? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ...aahh you're such a kidder...

starrsville

I did buy one of those plastic 6 drawers units you can get at Office Depot/ Staples. I've tossed photo pack in there with each drawer a separate theme. Of course, I have two wicker trunks at the ends of the guest beds that hold suitcases on the top - and unsorted pictures inside. That's as "organized" as I've gotten.

travelprincess

Hey connecticutyankee....did you hear me laughing? Your comment really took me out of my serious mode. However you did manage to take a bit of my well intended motivation away. Oh well there's always tomorrow.

connecticutyankee

Glad I could help you de-motivate - makes me look better!

Really, I envy your energy regarding this issue. I have tried to keep up with this for years and mostly have taken to just putting the old photos in albums just to protect them and not even worrying whether they're in order.

I do have a few albums from recent trips that are mostly complete, but the everyday photos are just hanging around, IN the camera or ON the server. My husband loves the total digital mode and while I do use a digital camera, I must print them out and see the photos to enjoy them. Seeing them on the computer only just doesn't do it for me.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes, travelprincess!

olesouthernbelle

I've just this year gotten familiar with the online albums that Snapfish ( and others ) can print out & mail to you all done up!

I did this first after Christmas ( my grandson's 1st) & again with our vacation pictures to the Big Island & Kauai (two separate albums).

It does take time to sort & arrange on the computer, but it seemed less stressful/messy while composing it & the albums themselves come back very slim & compact, not so bulky as the traditional ones are.

If you have to stop in the middle of task, there's no big 'let's clean up the dining room table' project - just click 'save the project'. Then, when you have more time to work on it, just open it back up.

I first uploaded my pics to kodak gallery, but later realized that Snapfish had some tropical background pages I preferred for the vacation albums. So check with the various programs to see what they offer & if it meets your needs/preferences before uploading.

That said, I do end up with various odds & ends pictures that I've yet to organize. I expect that will always be the case.

However, DS showed me last night how to 'tag' each picture on computer so that it can be easily retrieved. Any particular picture may have several tags to be retrieved. Example: by name, place, activity, etc.
That way, you don't find it necessary to put the same picture in several different albums on your computer (which I'd never done, but he says some really organized people do).

Fodorite018

I have been good about getting trips pics into albums. And the kids baby books...but after that, nope...not done. The rest of the pics are in plastic tubs according to what state we lived in. Guess that is the advantage to moving alot, lol!

suze

If I put all my vacation photos into albums, I'd need to add a room to my apartment to hold them!

Fodorite018

suze--The albums have a closet of their own in the bonus room, lol!

travelprincess

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for reassuring me that I am in the majority in being unorganized and not only , mms do the pictures have a closet of their own at the moment but a room of their own. A few years ago I scanned and had printed all the very old family pictures going way back and gave them in an album to my siblings. Did I do it for me? No.
Now I have so many from trips and digital that I never got printed but Walmart...here I come tomorrow!

suze

Here's how I plan to organize better in the future... take less pictures!

This past June I went to Mexico and(gasp! horrors!!) did not take a camera. Not one single photo. And I had a great oceanview hotel room too. How's that for a "unique idea"?????
;-)

travelprincess

Well any more, I don't take postcard pictures except if someone is in it. I think for our kids it's nice later in life. Ahhhhh. My will...I shall leave the unorganized photos. What have I been thinking???

NeoPatrick

Suze, I'm working toward that goal too. On our recent 11 week trip I took a grand total of 39 pictures. Some cities I never took the camera out for the whole week.

suze

To be honest it was in a place I go every year (Puerto Vallarta) plus I was traveling solo. So it was hardly like going cold-turkey in some place new or where I didn't already have approx. 100,001 photos of the sun setting over the ocean -lol!

connecticutyankee

Great idea, tprincess (about the will, I mean!). I'll just stuff all our photos in the Rolls Royce and the kids won't mind...

SAnParis

By date/trip

GreenDragon

Well, I sell my photos at art shows, so I have to be organized with my inventory.

I group them by 'event', i.e., vacation. I am digital, so I take about 3000 photos on a 2 week trip. When I'm done, I take the time to look through them, and perhaps pick out 100 for my website trip report, and a total of 300 of the best for eventual printing and selling. 10% is a pretty good average for that - I take several shots of the same thing to get the right angle/lighting, etc.

Once I've got the 300 printables, the 100 webs, and the rest, I archive them all on CDs... labeled and in a drawer. Available for retrieval later, if I need them. Otherwise consigned to the copyrightable file.