I Gotta Organise...my photographs! 



I adore photography, it's my favourite hobby. When I was asked to write an article for the Irish Times on how best to organise your photographs, I was delighted to get a chance to combine my two loves organising and photography! This is a job that can be done all year round and it's one that most people would like to do. With the arrival of digital cameras, people are leaving their great photos and memories on their computers instead of getting them printed and displayed. I'm guilty of this myself. A few months ago, I organised myself to get three hundred photos printed, but only this week have I started to put them into a photo album. And it's just great to look over all I've done, the places I've been and the important family events.

Reading in the sun

So for anyone who didn't see the article, here are my top tips for organising your photos.

1. Set aside time: 
Allocate a day or time per day that you dedicate to putting your photos in order and don't get distracted during this time. You may be tempted to begin showing the photos to those around you and reliving memories. Don't succumb to this, you can enjoy looking through the photos later when they're all organised.

2. The importance of labelling: 
Before moving photos from your digital camera on to your computer, always set up a picture folder first and make sure the folder is appropriately labelled. Labels should describe the theme of the photos and should include a date, for instance "Christmas 2011" or "Ben's christening November 2009". Make sure you choose labels that make sense to you. This will make for easier retrieval later. 

Perouges, Lyon, France

3. Creating categories: 
Sort actual photos out one by one. As you do, categories and sub-categories will emerge such as "Holidays - France" or "Events - Jane's Debs, David's 30th Birthday". Write the sub-category, for example "David's 30th birthday, on a post-it and place it on top of the bundle of photos. Hold them together with an elastic band. Place the photos in an envelope with the overall category, for example "Events", written on the outside. This will keep them together and organised until you get proper storage for them.

4. Toss and delete unwanted photos: 
Don't hold onto any poor quality or blurred photos. They will only cause clutter in your home or on your computer.


5. Storage: 

Catch the moon

Printed photos need a home. Designate a space in your home for your photo collection. This could be as simple as assigning a drawer and placing your organised envelopes containing your newly categorised photos there. Or you could purchase photo boxes which have dividers in them so that you can label up the divider and place your group of photos inside. They are stylish enough to have out on dislay in the home or will store your photos until you are ready to transfer them to a photo album or better yet, a frame! 

Always beautiful

6. Don't forget to back up: 
If you have a lot of photos on your computer, purchasing an external hard drive is essential for not only protecting your photos but also keeping your computer files organised. Once the folders of photos are moved over to the external hard drive they can be deleted off your computer, freeing up space. If you do not wish to delete all the folders you have just transferred over, create a new folder titled "Archived" plus today's date and place those folders in there. In that way, you will always know that folders in the archive folder are also on your external hard drive.

 Have fun organising!
Sarah 

Photography copyright of Sarah Reynolds