Several people have told me that I should write about my personal way of handling my digital photos. So here goes…

Since I’m over 50, I’m not very good with technology, so I came up with a SYSTEM (Saving you space, time, energy and money) to help me keep my photo taking under control.

This is what I do for my family photography annually:

1. I use a “real camera” to take my important photos and yes, I remember to take it to special family events afterwards. I use my cell phone for photo texting and social media.
2. About 3-6 times a year I download these photos to my computer in a file called“2015 Album” depending on the year.
3. At the beginning of the New Year, I go through all the photos of that “2015 Album” archive and delete the ones that don’t interest me.
4. I then create a 40 page photo book from that photo file. In fact, I drive to Wholesale Photo in Midland Park, NJ where I create these albums because I always need technical help.
5. After completing the digital project at your kiosk (and this usually takes me 3-5 hours, sometimes I take more than one trip to the store), I order the hardcover album and pick it up several days later when it’s shipped to me. the store.

Call me old fashioned but this system It works great for me and I’m delighted to give this photo album to my husband every Valentine’s Day. The whole family sits and looks at each page rediscovering what the heck happened in our lives the year before.

The final step in this system is where the photo album lives after we’re done looking at it. If you go down to my basement, you will find a small wall that houses all the memories of “Team Herron”. There’s a wide bookcase along that wall, and one long shelf in particular houses all the photo albums since my husband and I dated. Except for a few stray extra printed photos and some oddly sized and professional photos, there’s an album for every year of our life together starting in 1999. (I’ll be honest: there are two photo albums for the years my kids were born! because I couldn’t stop taking their photos!). Any member of our family can look at the albums whenever he wants. It’s nice to see my son or daughter take an album off the shelf and curl up in a comfortable chair to reflect. It makes it all worth it, especially when that someone is me.

From pressing the shutter button to placing the newest album complete on the shelf in our basement, this system works for me because it’s the way I like to view my photos and it’s fairly easy for me to maintain relative to my organization skills. . . You may have a completely different mindset about how you would like to view your images and how you would like to save them as well. It’s okay, we all organize ourselves differently.

You might look at this photo and wonder what the other boxes are for because they’re obviously not photo albums. Two are for oddly shaped photos and professional photos. The others are my special keepsake boxes. For example, when my nanny passed away, there is a box with items that I treasure from her life. I have a similar box for my husband’s keepsakes. There is a box of newspaper clippings keeping fond memories etc. The organization knack here is that you have a house for each category of “special treasures” that makes sense for you and your family. I have worked with clients where we have set up “Memory Boxes” for each family member and when the children move or a parent passes away, those precious containers are passed on to the heirs.

The important thing is that if your photos and memories are special to you, you design a system that works for you and establish a routine. This way, your walk down memory lane can happen because you know where your photos live and you know how to find them.