SAVE YOUR PHOTOS MONTH

 

As I was perusing my latest edition of Womans World magazine, I came across and interesting blurb entitled "CAPTURE JOY".  It caught my attention.

Apparently September is SAVE YOUR PHOTOS MONTH!!

 This is taken directly from Womans World:  " This holiday focuses on making sure your cherished moments are preserved for the future.  We asked Cathi Nelson, founder of The Photo Managers, the organization that created the holiday, how to protect your memories. Her unexpected top tip : 'Delete or throw away 80% of your photos.'  That includes blurry photos, doubles or extra scenery shots The, she advises dividing the rest into two piles: those that are album worthy, and those you want to save for other reasons.(they tell a story or bring up good memories, but dont belong in an album)."

SO I REALLY liked this tip.  When I went to Italy I literally look 975 pictures.  When we did our 2 week National Parks tour out west I took 1300 pictures. As I was going through and organizing I realized I had SO...MANY...DOUBLES!!(Like seriously, it was embarrassing). I took a ton of scenery pictures that once I got home, realized all sort of started to look alike, and I couldn't tell you where it was taken!   At one point I counted 27 pictures of the Amphitheatre at Bryce Canyon that all looked exactly the same.   SO as hard as it was to delete those pictures, in the end I didn't miss them.

 I was able to cut down my 859 pictures of Italy to about 300, and I am not missing out on anything.   I still have photos from everything we did and saw, but I was able to cut out the extra "stuff" that was kind of meaningless when I was looking back on it.  Did I really need 12 pictures from the top of the vineyard looking down over the exact same valley but at 10 different angles?  No. how many artistic pictures of olive oil did I really need? Pick the best one or two and move on.  I had 3 pictures in front of the bridge of sighs in Venice...they all looked the same, but one had the best smile.  Keep that one and move on.  Once you get going, it really is easy to start making cuts. 

PERSONAL TIP: I have found that after taking a group of photos, immediately go through and start making cuts right away. Once you start getting in the habit of deleting, it does get easier to figure out what you want to keep and what is extra. If you are on the fence, keep it, but some cuts are super obvious and easy to make. If I have two pictures that are almost identical, i flip back and forth and the one my gut says I like the best, I keep. If I am on the fence and cant decide I will keep it and get a second opinion.

That's the great thing about digital cameras... the instant ability to delete!!

For more tips on storing photos and backing up photos you can visit ThePhotoManagers.com for some free tutorials through November 1st!