Photos today are vastly different than they were in the past. We interact with them differently and we have many more of them than ever before. The estimate in 2014 is that there were 1.8 Billion photos taken each day. I would be willing to bet that that number has increased. Even with that 1.8 billion number that means that every 2 minutes more photos are taken than existed for 150 years of photography. With numbers of that quantity we need to do something to not lose the photos of value in the chaos.
In the past photos were rare and special. People would go to a photography studio for special occasions and have a sitting. They would pay a dear amount of money for them and share very sparingly. There were few photos so they were printed and placed carefully in albums to be treasured. Families would sit around the table and talk about each photo and the people in them. The occasion of the taking of the photo.
Today we have so many photos we take photos of the food we eat and ourselves with dog ears just for fun. We have photos we take that the entire purpose is for them NOT to live on but to instead delete themselves after one viewing. With this over abundance of photos how will we ever have special ones saved for future generations? How will our descendants get an idea of how we looked or lived? With a glut of most anything the precious, the special is lost like that proverbial needle in a haystack.
What can we do? How do we weed through and find those few we truly want to keep, to honor for future generations? We as a modern age people have to come up with systems to pick and choose. We need to each individually decide how many and then what to do with those select few.
A really good way to start is to tag in some way either with a star system/number system in your photo storage.
Take time to delete photos no longer relevant in your life. Keeping your photo chaos as small as possible. This often seems like a really large task. Use found moments. Sitting at the Dr office waiting. Sitting in the vehicle waiting to pick up your children. During commercials, mindless minutes when you are drinking your coffee in the morning.
Make a yearly photo album/book. You can upload those special photos you have deemed to be worthy and make a photo book that can be printed and sent to you. If you do so yearly those favorite photos will be there for your family to sit around the table and discuss them.
Professional photo organizers can help. We at Pixologie Digital Solutions can find the solution to your digital photo problem. Give guidance on how to make a photo book, slide show or prints for your tables and walls.
Don’t let the sheer numbers and the mountain you have created get in the way of truly enjoying your photos. They are a way to tie present to the past and the future.