Where Are Your Photos?

Photos can play an important role in helping us remember special and everyday moments.

When I used to teach photo album-making classes as a Creative Memories Consultant, one of my first questions was "where are your photos?". The answers I received before digital photos were a lot simpler than they are today.

I would love to know where your photos are. If you want to share, please copy and paste the following questions and send me your answers at suzanne@revive55project.com.

In case you're interested, I'll include my answers at the bottom of this post in case you want to see them before or after you answer yourself.

1. Where are your physical photos?
a) In photo albums
b) Organized in boxes, folders
c) Disorganized in boxes, folders
d) Other: ___________________

2. Are you happy with the state of your physical photos?
a) Yes
b) No
c) No but it’s not a priority so I’m okay with it.

3. Where are your original digital photos (not back up photos)?
a) In an organization program like Photoshop Organizer, Lightroom, Apple Photos, Picasa, etc.
b) In dated folders on my computer
c) On my phone
d) On an external hard drive, USB/flash drives, SD cards
e) In the cloud
f) Other: ______________________

4. Are you happy with the state of your digital photos?
a) Yes
b) No
c) No but it’s not a priority so I’m okay with it.

5. Do you delete or throw away photos?
a) Yes - blurry and unflattering ones
b) Yes - all except the very best
c) Yes - somewhere in between
d) No

6. Can you tell the difference between your best photos and the clutter?
a) Yes - I only keep the best
b) Yes - I rank, heart or star the best ones
c) Yes - I have the best ones in separate folders or albums
d) No - the best are mixed in with the rest

7. How many photos do you have?
a) On your phone: _________
b) On your computer: __________
c) On external drives (originals not backed up): ___________
d) In cloud (originals not backed up): __________
e) I don’t know
f) How can I tell?
g) The number doesn’t matter to me

8. Do you feel like you can easily find a photo from a specific event when you want to?
a) Yes in seconds/minutes (in an album or computer)
b) Yes in under an hour (in an album or computer)
c) Sometimes
d) I wouldn’t know where to start to look
e) Other: ___________________

9. Could you recover your photo collection in case of:
a) House damage (fire, water, damage, etc.)
       i) Yes photos are on the cloud/online
       ii) Yes negatives, hard drive, files are stored elsewhere
       iii) No
b) Computer crashes and is not fixable
       i) Yes photos are copied on cloud, web, hard drive, USB or SD cards
       ii) Yes photos are also on phone
       iii) Yes lower quality copies are on Facebook
       iv) No
c) Phone or tablet is lost or broken
       i) Yes photos are backed up elsewhere
       ii) No

10. What do you love most about your photo organization?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________


11. What do you hope to improve about your photo organization?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

12. Who is in charge of your photos?
a) You
b) You and your partner share the same collection
c) You and your partner have separate collections

Although my digital photos are sort of organized, I feel that my system needs improving and be more time efficient. I feel that there is a better way to organize, curate and maintain our photos in the digital age.

Ten years ago, I posted this on social media:

I love my enthusiasm and hope that I would declutter our photos. For the past ten years, I have been feeling the weight as more and more photos were added to our collection.

Don't get me wrong. I looooove our photos and videos. I am very happy I have them.

For years, I kept thinking that my focus should be on decluttering. I spent hours deleting thousands of photos but then thousands more were added and the original number of photos I tried to decrease is surpassed again. I would get discouraged and at times give up trying.

As I see that message from 10 years ago, I recognize that I don't want to feel this way for the next 10 years. I also recognize that I should focus my time on the photos I love (a joy) not on the photos I don't want (a chore).

I think that the way of the past isn't the way of the future.

At the moment, I feel like I need to let go of my past collection. I don't want to spend the time required to delete unnecessary photos. I have used PhotoSweeper to find duplicates but even that application is time consuming to ensure I keep the edited version or the better version of the original or HDR one.

I want to let go of past mistakes and create a new way of capturing memories with photos. That's what I will focus my time on.

I would love to get feedback on where your photos are to see if most people are happy with the way things are or are looking for a better way like I am.

Thank you for reading and your feedback.

Suzanne

Here are my answers:

1. My physical photos are in photo albums and mostly organized in photo boxes.
2. I'm fairly happy with the state of my physical photos. I have a couple of years worth of printed photos that still need to be added to photo albums.
3. My digital photos are in multiple organization programs, in dated folders on my computer, on my phone, on an external hard drive, USB drives and in the cloud. Sounds overwhelming!
4. I'm not completely happy with the state of my digital photos.
5. I have deleted thousands of photos but keep most.
6. I try to rank or heart my best photos but there are lots that are not.
7. On my phone I have 46455 photos/videos (same as iCloud and Apple photos that are linked).
   In Photoshop 69929 (pre-May 2014) and in Lightroom 61908.
8. I can easily find a photo if I have an idea of the date or it's organized in a themed folder eg. a place, a person or activity.
9. My negatives and photo albums are in my house (I have had negatives elsewhere at times but they're back here). I have scanned a lot of my childhood physical photos but there are still tons that I would lose. My computer and back up drive are in our house so if something happened to them physically, I would only have icloud, Flickr and Lightroom app photos. 
10. I love that my photos are organized by theme (places, people, activities, etc.); that a lot of photos are ranked or marked with a heart; and that they are backed up.
11. I hope to better protect in case of disaster; I hope to find a less time consuming way to organize and curate my collection and I hope to be prepared for change in technology. For example, what happens to my Photoshop collection organization (with rankings, albums, tags, etc.) when the application is no longer compatible with newer computers. I think it's no longer available for purchase and possibly no longer supported. 
12. My husband and I share a collection and I have a separate collection.

Memorable Songs Playlist

What's your time machine?

Is it Springsteen or Teenage Dream?

What's your takes you back?

Your first falling in love soundtrack

(A Song for Everything by Maren Morris)

As I was making a playlist of my favourite songs from 2019 that included A Song for Everything by Maren Morris, I was struck by the number of them that had lyrics about memories. Maybe every year it's like that, but I was super aware this year with my Revive55 Project.

Listening to the songs and hearing these lyrics, made me think of making a memories playlist. It's like the memorable photos folder I wrote about a couple of months ago. You can read that post by clicking here.

The new memories playlist includes songs that remind me of a special memory, a person, a place or event.

It's an extension to the playlist I mentioned in my post "Playlist of my Life". In that post, I was talking about my childhood and university days. I had made a playlist of my favourite childhood songs and I could remember where I was when I used to listen to them.

Taking inspiration from another song from my 2019 playlist, I decided to go one step further. What about moments throughout our life?

I'm a record collection, a dedicated section

I'm a memory of everything you've ever seen and ever done

(Record Collection by Kaiser Chiefs)

Our wedding song is an easy one to remember, but with music being a major part of my life, there are countless more.

For example, whenever I hear a song from Lauryn Hill's album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill", I am walking on the beach in Jamaica. When we were there in 2000, that album played over and over at our resort. Even twenty years later, the song still takes me back.

In 2003 when Toronto was in a SARS crisis (and events were being cancelled) Coldplay performed at the Molson Amphitheatre. At the end of Clocks, the lyrics were changed to:

Home where I wanted to go

I went home home where I wanted to go

People told us to cancel the show

but how could

yes how could they know

that the one place

that we love to go

is to play-ay-ay in

To-ron-to

That song always reminds me of that night and attending my first Coldplay concert with my sister.

Hearing Katy Perry's Firework takes me back to our daughter's Grade 6 Graduation performance when the whole graduation class sang and performed a choreographed dance.

Whenever I am reminded of a song that is attached to a special memory, I'll add it to my memories playlist.

Another example is to be conscious of a song or piece of music that is playing when you experience a special moment. It's a great time to pause and be in the moment. Two years ago, I took a video when I was struck by the song that was playing while we were having lunch outside at Alpina Hütte in St. Moritz.


We had seen Rodriguez in concert a few years before after seeing the Sugarman documentary. Hearing that song surprised me because it's not a song I would expect to hear anywhere in Canada. Rodriguez was more popular in Euope and Africa than he was in North America.

Research has shown that music, memories and emotion are stored in the same part of the brain and that musical memories are stored in the last part of the brain to atrophy in Alzheimer's patients.

Connecting songs to moments can help us remember them. By making a new playlist (or choosing a song) to listen to while watching a sunset or sitting by a fire or going on a trip, we can be reminded of that moment when we hear the songs in the future.

By making an album of memorable songs, we can keep those memories alive. I don't hear Lauryn Hill or Rodriguez played much anymore, so adding it to a playlist that I will listen to will keep taking me back to those moments in time.

Dream of Future Memories

I began my Revive55 Project to preserve my past memories, to remember the stories, to recognize what was meaningful and to declutter what wasn't.

I considered "taking care of the past" as a project. After the project, I planned to focus on present and future memories which would be a process.

Catching up is a project. 

Keeping up is a process.

With the new year however, I feel that it's a good time to look forward. What do I want my days, months and years to be like?

The New Year is a popular time for resolutions so why not add memories-themed ones to the list?

Dream of Future Memories

There are three aspects to memories. We want to preserve our past memories, we want to enjoy our present moments and we want to dream of our future experiences.

With the start of a new year and a new decade, it's a good time to dream of the future and start making plans to act on those dreams. By writing down our hopes and dreams, we can create more memorable moments.

Choose one or more of the following challenges:

55 Second Challenge

1. Make a Future Memories list. What experiences do you hope to have in the future?
2.  Keep it handy and add to it whenever you think: 
• "I wish I ..." 
• "I hope to ... " 
• "Some day I want to ..."
• "I love it when..." 
• "I loved it when..."
3. Write your ideas in a journal or enter it in an app or document.
4. Bonus: Review it on a regular basis and take steps to make things happen.

55 Minute Challenge

1. Start a Day Zero Project: 
• Write a list of 101 Things you want to do in 1001 Days
• or 52 things for 52 weeks or 12 things for 12 months
2. Follow the Day Zero Project website as is or create it "your way" like I did it "my way".
3. Write your ideas in a journal or planner or enter it in an app or document.
4. Bonus: Review it on a regular basis and take steps to make things happen

Day Zero...My Way

When I first started the Day Zero Project, I made a "safe" list of 101 things I thought I could accomplish. By the time I finished my list, I wasn't too excited. I saw things that I would do because they were on a list. What if I didn't want to do them anymore on day 900? Would I force myself to do something just because it was on a list? How would I feel if I failed to complete the 101?

That's when I decided to change the rules and do the project "my way".

I started the project with two lists. The first list is numbered from 1 to 101 and is blank. The other list is all kinds of things I would love to do whether they were realistic or not. It consisted of hundreds of things: places I dreamed of visiting, events I wanted to attend, people I wanted to meet, bands I wanted to see, activities I wanted to do, etc.

As I did something on the list, I added it to the numbered list. I continued until I got to 101. If something was on a list that I didn't want to do anymore, I removed it. If something came up that wasn't on the list but it would have been easy to not do or I couldn't even have dreamed of, I still added it to the numbered list.

Read the full blog post on how I made the project my way ten years ago by clicking this link: https://dayzeromyway.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-zero-projectmy-way.html

5.5 Hours Challenge

1. Create a Vision Board or Revive55 "Time Travel Board".
2. Find images or sayings of moments you have loved in the past...moments that you are amazed have happened.
3. Find images or sayings to represent future moments that will be worth remembering.
4. Paste them on a poster board.

When I have attended a vision board workshop, the instructions were to go through magazines and cut out anything that "speaks to you", that you love or that inspires you. I like to keep my vision board more specific. I search out what I want to include and cut out or screen capture things as I come across them.

Choose a size you're comfortable with. If you want to keep it simple and focused, choose a smaller one. I have done smaller ones before and decided to expand to a larger one. I chose a fold-out poster board. I have different themes on each surface.

I used removable tape on it so that as things changed, I could edit it which I have done a few times.

Researching more about vision boards to broaden the tips I could give, I am seeing many ways that I could improve mine. To start with, I read the following in a post about making vision boards more powerful:  "Keep it neat. Avoid creating a cluttered or chaotic board - you don’t want to attract chaos into your life."

Well, you really can't say that my vision board is neat.

I still love this one so may "retire" it rather than edit it any more.

For 2020 I will start a new one. I will write a separate post with tips and ideas in more detail.

Time Travel Board

I am calling the Revive55 Memories-themed board a Time Travel Board. Travel back in time to special memories and look forward to creating more memories.

I have been thinking about this since I started the Revive55 Project. The first part of the Memories Board includes experiences you dream of and would create memorable moments. The second part of the Memories Board includes past experiences that are meaningful and proof that amazing things can happen. If you ever doubt that things won't happen, you just have to look at your past memories to believe that lots can happen to make your dreams happen.