One of my great loves is photography. I have written a few columns in the past about it, but this week I’m thinking of one of the pitfalls of taking photographs in this digital age. That is, a photographer – or a parent of some cute kids – can accumulate huge numbers of photo files.
This takes up a lot of valuable space on our hard drives.
I have gotten better at sorting and deleting bad photos right away, but I need to get even better. I always have an “organize photos” on my mental to do list, but I rarely get a chance to sit down and cull my photos.
One thing that helps me is my photo program. (I use Aperture, which is made for Mac computers, though I’m sure other programs have similar features.) It allows me to rate my photos with one to five stars, and I do this immediately. The highest rated are the ones that appear on my blog or, if they are photos of my children, are sent to grandma.
The photos that don’t get any stars should be deleted right away, but too often I find myself reluctant to delete some of these photos because there is some endearing quality that makes the photo sentimental to me. I keep telling myself that when I run out of space on my computer, I’ll delete those photos.
Fortunately, I have a tech savvy husband who has made sure I have plenty of space and back-up so that I won’t need to do that for a long time. There are two ways I back up my photos at home. First, I use an external hard drive to save photos and other important files on my computer. The files are somewhat organized on this drive, so I can go pick and chose whatever file I might need, if I have to.
My second back up is on another external hard drive. I use the Mac computer’s “time machine” which automatically saves my entire hard drive at regular intervals. However, if I ever needed to retrieve something from it, I would have to restore everything to my hard drive. There is no way to go in and find one particular file. This is a great way to assure I’ll have everything if my computer ever dies on me.
My husband and I also keep an additional external hard drive of important files in a separate location away from the house. This will be invaluable should there ever be a fire at our house. Hopefully we’ll never use it, but it’s nice to know it’s there.
If you don’t have a time machine feature, and you need a good way to back up your important data, you might want to check out carbonite.
com, which offers a safe and affordable online back up.
Now that I have all these photo files of my children, it’s occurred to me that twenty years from now I may not want to sort through files on my computer to view the photos. It’s worse than that huge, unorganized box of prints from the early 90s that is buried in my closet somewhere.
So what can a parent do with these digital images that will make viewing them years later less painless? One easy solution is creating slideshows. Any photo that I have rated three stars and higher can be put into a custom slideshow, complete with introductions, music and ending credits, and then burned onto a DVD to view on the T.V. or computer. It takes time to do this, but I know I’ll be glad I did it. If you don’t have a program on your computer that allows you to create slideshows, you’ll want to check out the awarding-winning animoto.com.
Despite having the slideshows, I still think the best way of viewing photos are by holding an album or a book in my hands. And since technology is always changing, and discs and files can be damaged, it’s another way of preserving precious memories.
There are now many ways of creating custom books and albums online, and they look professionally published. I have created books through Apple’s service, and I have seen some nice books created on blurb.com. There are other options available too. Just do a search for “photo books.”
So what are you waiting for? Go out and take more photos!
Shelli Bond Pabis is a Winder resident and columnist for the Barrow Journal. You can send comments about this column to shelli@mamaofletters.com.
