Photo Organization

 I've always had a thing for pictures.  It makes me feel a little out of control when I get too behind on photo albums.  I was around for the days when we didn't have digital photography.  I got my first digital camera in 2005, and since I started motherhood printing out 4x6 pictures, that is what I'm continuing to do now.  I've gone through stages of scrapbooking, but once Samuel came, that was all out the window.  I just wanted to keep up, so I went to just taking pictures, editing them, and printing them off.  It's still a time-consuming task.  But it's doable for me, even in this crazy life stage I'm in.  I don't have nap times anymore.  We are gone most evenings playing sports.  I'm with my kids all day every day, (and I love it!) but it doesn't allow for hours and hours for album making.  One year I did do a Shutterfly album with a year's worth of pictures, but it took a really, really long time.  I loved how it turned out, but it took HOURS and HOURS and I haven't been dedicated enough to do it since.

So here's what I do now...  

I edit my pictures about every month.  I organize them in folders by month on Aperture.

Then about once twice a year, I upload them to Shuttefly, and order the ones that I want in the album.  I always have about twice as many on my computer as I really want to order.  This process takes about an evening or two in front of the computer.  

After they arrive, I make sure they're in order and put them in a book while I watch a movie.

And then I'm done.
That's my favorite part, because then I can cross it off my list.

I would love to be able to be more creative than that.  But for right now, this is all I can keep up with.

You can see in these pictures that I buy regular scrapbook albums and the refill pages that accommodate 6 pictures per page, or 12 pictures if you count the back and the front.  I like this way better than the regular albums that are pre-made because then if I have an 8x10 or a random team photo I want to stick in there with the others, I can still do that by using a scrapbook page.  

Or I can do a few "scrapbook-type" things if I want to, like I did here for Joseph's birth.  I can't believe this was over SIX years ago.  It really does feel like yesterday.

My kids LOVE to look through them.  I pulled them out recently and Nathan just stared at the pictures from when he was born.  He stared for days and couldn't quite figure out why he was born naked.  It was hilarious. 

I'm only sharing this with you because I think there are so many cool things on blogs and pinterest to do with pictures that I wish I had the energy to do.  And I hope to one day be able to branch out and do more creative books and such.  But for now, this works, and it's easy, and it's fairly cheap as well.

What do you do with all those pictures on your computer?  I'm curious to know :)

The only other thing I started doing was an Instagram book.  You can read about that here.
I'm pretty proud of myself because I just finished my 2012 Instagram book.  I have "issues" completing projects these days, so the fact that I finished my 2012 book BEFORE 2013 starts is kind of a big deal ;)