Taste{full} Goals: Organize Those Photos! - Pretty Real

Taste{full} Goals: Organize Those Photos!

6:27 PM

The onset of the digital age has its advantages, but in terms of photography, it certainly has one primary disadvantage.  We take many more photos than we used to because it's so easy to take and [theoretically] develop pictures.  And what happens once we take those pictures? Well the answer for most of us would be (drum roll please).......nothing!  They stay on our camera for a year or if you're more advanced than the rest of us, they actually make it off of your camera and onto your hard drive.  The next level is to actually upload them and print them.  But even that's not really the point of those romantic pictures of you kissing your beau or the beautiful photo that highlights your daughter's big blue eyes or the amazing picture of the Louvre on your European escapade, now is it?! The ultimate goal would be to collect those pictures in a way that's meaningful and reminds you of the people and places you love.  It's such an awesome feeling to look back over a photo album or photo slideshow and be reminded of all the fun moments in life.  Since we don't tend to take pictures of the sad and crappy parts of life, it's a nice way to reminisce from happy moment to happy moment.  Here are a few items to get you started on organizing those photos...

First is to organize the photos. While it would be nice to put each and every picture in beautiful leather bound albums that's just not practical--at least at first.  I personally would feel a whole lot better if my photos were organized by date and placed in any one of these amazing photo storage boxes.  Form and function are not mutually exclusive. 

In terms of organization, you may wish to organize them online only and skip the adorable photo storage boxes altogether.  If that's the case, there are several sites where you can not only store your photos, but also create amazing photo books with them.  These sites also have super cheap printing options (why buy expensive ink when you can print for 8 cents per picture?) along with photo gift ideas, announcements, Christmas cards, etc.  The possibilities are endless.

 Shutterfly, York, and Snapfish are all very easy to use and have varying levels of unique printing and gift ideas. Personally I prefer Shutterfly--their announcements and cards are much more modern. Of course they are also more expensive. York seems to be the cheapest of the bunch. You can actually buy prints for as little as 4 cents per print when they run their promotions (they are 8 cents normally). You can't beat that price. MyPublisher is a little more complex to use but it gives you far more creative license when making photo books.

 So I mentioned photo books a few times.  Rather than post links to pictures of albums and frames, I'm instead going to recommend that you try creating a phtoto book online.  I know there is something to be said for 'real' pictures in an album versus a book but there's also something to be said for maintaining your sanity.  If, like me, you have literally thousands of pictures (either hard or soft copy) the thought of printing them all and putting them in albums can be a tad overwhelming.  However the thought of sitting at the computer for a few hours making a photo book just doesn't seem quite as daunting.  Mypublisher is probably the queen of photo books.  However, due to the ease of shutterfly, it's the site I chose to make this one:

I didn't even scratch the surface regarding scrapbooking, framing, photo albums, etc.  But hopefully this is enough information to inspire you to get those photos off of your camera or off of your computer and make something of them!

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  1. Love this Tiff, and what an AMAZING book you made! Since I've seen it in person I can vouch for the fact that it is such a quality gift and truly so fun and touching for the recipient! Shutterfly is currently offering photobooks at 20% off plus free shipping for Valentine's, and you can use code WINTERSAVE30 for 15% off of orders over $50 and 30% off of orders over $100 at mypublisher.com! Mypublisher.com also always offer the deal of getting a second copy of your photobook free... just click on the 'Get Your Free Photo Book' red block on the home page.