Organizing and Storing Your Pictures

In the age of the digital camera, photographers are now faced with the problem of how to organize and store their photos.

My favorite method of organizing my pictures is to create sub-folders in my My Pictures. The first sub-folder is the year (2007). Then I create sub-folders for each month. So, January would be '01-January'. I put the '01' in front of the month to ensure that when my computer sorts my folders in sequential order that they are sorted January - December. If you just named the folders the name of the month (January), your computer would sort them in the following order: 'February, January, March' instead of '01-January, 02-February, 03-March'. When I upload my pictures I simply plug them into the month they were taken in.

Now what do you do with all of these pictures?

Too many times they are simply stored on cameras or only on computers. If you are one of these people (and I have to admit that I am but am working on becoming a 'was') you have to ask yourself this question: What would happen if your computer suddenly crashed? That happened to me! I was so grateful that our IT Guru neighbor knew how to retrieve our old documents, photos included! Next time I may not be so lucky. So here are a few tips to keep your photos safe:

Burn every month's photos to 2 CDs. If you know how to do this yourself, great! If not, you can upload your pictures to online photo printers like Wal-Mart, Meijer, Walgreens, Snapfish, etc. and then just purchase 2 CDs for around $2-3.

Keep one CD for yourself and send one to a relative. Not only will they have copies of your pictures then for their own use but GOD FORBID you were to lose everything in a fire you will still have your pictures.

Another option, which in my opinion is not as safe, is to store your pictures on an external hard drive. If your computer crashes then you still have your backup. However, this does not prevent loss due to fire.

If you have a fire safe, you could save your CDs in the fire safe as well.

You could do one or any combination of these tips. Any one of these tips will keep your pictures just a little bit safer and your mind a little less crazy (perhaps).