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Oh, Zeke E Boy!
When Zeke passed away earlier this year, one of the things that we did immediately was compile a digital folder of all the pictures we could find of the little guy. For several days, we would watch the slide show in the evenings, cry and reminisce about our time together.
He was part of our lives for 12.5 years so we had pictures of each other, friends, family and just Zeke. We saw how he grew up and we grew up with him. We lived in 5 different houses with him. It brought back so many good memories, and helped me grieve the loss.
Organization Pays Off
I was able to compile the album very quickly because I have been pretty organized with our digital pictures. We have a hard drive (as well as 2 identical backup hard drives) of pictures and digital files collected over the years. In the root ‘Pictures’ folder, I created subfolders for every year as well as folders for general topics such as Church, Desktop
(used as our computer desktop picture slideshow), Digital Picture Frame, pictures from each of our phones and work pictures.
I created the ‘All Zeke’ folder by reviewing pictures from every year that we had him and all of the other folders in the hard drive. I copied any pictures that he was in by having a side-by-side view of the pictures that I was searching on the left and the ‘All Zeke’ folder on the right. I use this same process to copy pictures from my phone to the hard drive to backup pictures at least once or twice a year, and now more frequently with all the pictures I’m taking of our sailing adventures.
How can I get better?
There’s always room for improvement so I started looking for more tips on organizing and managing photos and came across some info that I’d like to pass on.
Save Your Photos Day
First of all, I found that the last Saturday of September is Save Your Photos Day – who knew there was such a thing?!?
But it makes sense that we should try to preserve and protect our photos so that we can remember the people, places and memories of our lives easier.
Waiting on the World to Change
With most of us never leaving home without a ‘camera’ aka smartphone, it’s easy to snap a pic and never look at it again. However, I read an article (I think from Real Simple – although I can’t find it to reference for you) that reviewing, organizing and deleting (yes, pick the best picture of duplicates and delete the rest) your pictures on our phone is something that we should do regularly. And the best place to do it is while waiting on something or someone.
If I find myself waiting – in line at a store, at the doctor’s office, to pick up my nieces from school, etc. – instead of scrolling social media (which I’ll occasionally do), I’ll go through my phone gallery and review the latest pictures. I’ll move them to the ‘appropriate’ folder and delete the duplicates or ones that aren’t good. This passes the time quickly, and I’m not frustrated while waiting for extra long periods of time because I’m being productive.
More Benefits
This does several things: 1) I’m getting rid of digital clutter, 2) it frees up more space on my phone to continue to run efficiently, 3) I’m more likely to be able to find a picture when I want to share a story about an experience with friends or family and 4) I’ll frequently click through the gallery albums on my phone depending on my mood to brighten my day or get inspiration for a project or pray for my nieces and nephew. I’m more likely to actually look at the album if I know it’s been reviewed and refined.
But wait, there’s more! After reading this article from Real Simple, I found that I already do many of these items to help preserve my photos, but now you can too!
Digitize Old Photos
Kyle & I did this with our wedding photos. Yes, we’re that old – our wedding photos were not digital! Several years after our wedding, the wedding photographer allowed us to purchase the old negatives from him before getting rid of them. I went to a local camera store in Indianapolis that would create DVDs from the negatives, so that I could preserve and use them digitally. I wanted to make a wedding scrapbook, and create a Shutterfly wedding book for our parents.
If you don’t want to pay for services, our local library allows you to use a digital scanner for free. Once your photos are digital, you can use the same method that I suggest above to organize the scanned pictures by year. Or if you don’t know what year, you can organize by family or event or ??? – whatever makes sense to you!
Print Out Faves
I also did this with pictures of Zeke to make a collage that hangs in my office. And I’ll frequently decorate with pictures from vacations – instead of buying souvenirs. I budget the cost of a canvas print or large picture frame into the vacation budget so we can remember the moment over and over again.
Make a Photobook or Calendar (or Mug or ?)
Every year, my family creates a shared calendar on Shutterfly. Birthdays and anniversaries of family members are included and it’s great to see pictures of people we don’t see in person. And for Valentine’s Day this year, I made a Zeke mug to give to Kyle, which I have since confiscated as my mug … I used Walgreens photo for this and found the site very easy to use. As previously mentioned, I’ve also used Shutterfly to create picture books and other gifts. Be sure to look for coupons because you can find great deals on these items if you plan ahead and are willing to wait for the coupon.
What do you Think?
I’d like to hear if you have any other suggestions for organizing digital and old photos. How do you stop the digital clutter and make sure you continue to backup and preserve your memories? Please share your feedback in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
– Kara from Zeke Life
Live like Zeke
You’re such a good boy!
