HEIDI BULLOCK
Memories to See and Enjoy
Abstract
This project will help me get the thousands of pictures I have taken of my four children off the phones, cameras, and computers. They will be organized and accessible. I will not just have them organized but condensed, and also backed up. Knowing the pictures are backed up so they won’t be lost will provide me peace of mind. By utilizing digital software and creating physical photo albums, our memories will be preserved and ready to be enjoyed at any time by anyone. I will have a digital system in place to continue documenting future pictures and memorabilia. I will have a sense of satisfaction and completion.
Goals
I organized my pictures and memorabilia of my four children. I came up with a documenting plan and researched digital organization, storage and production. I compiled family albums for four complete years, consisiting of two digital printed albums and two physical photo and product albums. I created a plan for current and future albums for each of my four children.
** My goals changed when I realized this project was going to take a lot more time than this assignment allowed. I did complete what I considered to be most crucial: getting everything organized in one place and backed up securely. I did learn more about digital organization and completed a series of albums- just not for each child as I had originally planned.
I began by gathering everything I had into one place. I had flash drives, CD’s, an external hard drive, an old camera, SD cards, files on two computers and a current phone; in addition to the boxes of actual printed pictures. All the pictures were sorted according to child. I moved all digital files to one computer, then organized according to year, then moved them to an external hard drive, dropbox, and google photos for long term storage.
I organized pictures and planned out pages according to the printed pictures I had. I then created a photo album for an entire year, complete with journaling. Next, I began a digital system for organizing pictures and creating scrapbook pages. (This will be my main system for creating future albums.) I then researched different options for printing photo books and had a book printed.
Outcome
I am able to make good use of my time by being organized and up to date. I can continue to archive our memories without having a nagging feeling. Memories are to be enjoyed. I have changed my outlook of dreading more pictures for fear of what to do with them, to excitement of capturing a memory and now being able to document it.
After organizing and backing up all our pictures, I now know what I have and what I need to do with all of it! I have a starting point, a plan of action, and an end product for some of the pictures. My family and I are able to look thru and enjoy memories we have made. I also have a better understanding of what I want to take pictures of and what kind of things I want to document.
Picture 1: picture files now on one computer
Picture 2: physical photo album
Unexpected Outcomes
I did not anticipate needing so much storage space, as I did not realize how many pictures I actually had. I did not expect to spend so much time looking thru pictures and enjoying each memory that came. I also did not plan on the joy and excitement my family showed as they saw pictures of themselves and we relived some of the fun times laid out in the scrapbooks.
I also did not anticipate the price of printing such a large amount of pages in one book… I will have to budget and print according to cost allowance as I go forward.
Deliverables
Here is the link outlining the process of getting organized- in written report and pictures. I have included some sample pages from the albums and my written plan for organizing, storing, and preserving pictures.