Growing up with a grandfather that was endlessly photographing every detail of his 7 grandchildren’s lives. I have always had endless photo albums at my disposal. I remember on my visits to their home I would sit for hours looking at albums of my Aunt and father growing up, trips my grandparents went on. It gave me insight and a tremendous amount of delight to see my family when they were younger. The clothing, hairstyles, toys, I saw it all! I’m sure most of you have had that experience! A few years ago my mother’s sister gave me a suitcase filled with old photos of my grandparents. Images I never saw before,because they were hidden. They day I went through them I uncovered a better understanding of my grandparents lives, the happy times they experienced.

Jumping 40 years forward to the digital age, we find that 90% of our images sit on a hard drive or our phone. What happens if the hard drive fails or phone is lost? Hopefully you have a secondary backup like iCloud or Amazon drive. But then there is the question I often think, “When I’m gone, who the heck is going to want to spend any time looking through my bazillion images?” If that’s where grandpa kept his images I can almost guarantee you I would not have had the amount of time needed to look and sort through them all!

Yes, just thinking about organizing and printing our images can be extremely discouraging. Who really has that kind of time? Well that’s what I’m here to help you with!

Organizing

How do I organize my images?

 This is probably the one area I hear most often. If you work on a Mac there is iPhoto, but even I have found it a little bit challenging at times, fortunately they have updated their app. Since macOS Sierra, iPhotos has been getting makeovers and new features. In macOS Mojave, the app lets you organize content just by dragging-and-dropping it, and with Smart Albums, you can instantly group photos by date, camera, and even the person in them. At this point, it’s just a really good piece of photo management software.

For PC users ACDSee 20 lets you easily view and edit your photos, metadata, and it also lets you organize your photos by keyword, calendar date, category, location, color labels and number ratings, plus photo editing tools. They have a free trial download, if you are happy with it you can buy a lifetime license for a one time fee of $39.

Printing! 

Printing has become a task for many of us. Where do we go to get a quality print now that almost every 30 minute photo lab has closed? 

Mpix is a company dedicated to excellent quality and customer service. I use their professional lab for all of my printing. They carry that quality and professionalism over to their consumer department. They are a little more than a drug store, however their quality is far superior to all of the online companies and drug stores.

Albums

Want to create something quick? 

Use Chatbooks. I found this little gem when henry was about 6 months old. A quick and super easy way to get all the images off your phone and into an album. Their prices start at $10 for a 6×6 30 page album. (How can you not print your images for that price!) It’s a simple app that guides you through the process. I’ve found it to be a great way for henry to remember fun times of everyday life. So much easier and safer than giving him my phone, plus I can easily make up two copies, one for us to enjoy today and one as a keepsake for when he’s older.

When you sign up you will receive 20% off your first order.

Looking to create something bigger? 

Blurb is the place to go. This is a higher end album company, they offer beautiful coffee table books that lay flat. Prices start at $59 for a 20 page album. I use Blurb for my vacation photos because they print on an a HP digital printer, the paper is 100#, so when they glue the two sides of the pages together you end up with a nice thick page which of course is less susceptible to damage. Blurb has software that easily downloads to your computer. You now have the license to be as creative as you want!

With your first order you can save up to 35% with great specials throughout the year.

If you find any of this overwhelming or have any questions please feel free to give me a call. I’m always here for you!