Tackle your digital photos first. Your images may be at greater risk than your printed photo collection if you don’t have sufficient backups in place.
You may be tempted to start with your printed photos, but we have a good reason for tackling your digital photos first! We asked Certified Photo Organizer Caroline Guntur of Organizing Photos by The Swedish Organizer why she recommends starting with your digital images and she gave us 4 GREAT reasons.
Tech Failure Rates vs. Natural Disaster
Consider this fact: Statistically, you are more likely to lose your digital photos in a tech crash than your analog memories in a house fire or other natural disaster.
It’s no secret that hard drives fail. Lots of phones are stolen every day. Computers shut down, never to be powered on again. In other words, your device is the most likely culprit when it comes to lost memories, not a natural disaster.
Is it always accurate? Of course not. No disaster or accident should be treated casually, so you’ll have to consider the dangers that your photos face, and make a good judgment call, but in general, I tend to acknowledge this statement as fact. I live in a low-risk area, and I know for sure that my photos are more at risk on the tech side. Every project needs a plan of action, and if you’re statistically more likely to lose your digital photos, why not start by keeping those safe?
4 reasons you should start organizing your digital #photos today #saveyourphotos Click To TweetMost of Your Photos are Digital
If you lose your digital collection, you’ll probably end up losing more photos, maybe even most of them. I mean, aren’t the majority of your photos digital? I’d bet my last quarter on the fact that most of your photos are digital, even if you have lots of prints. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably taken more pictures in the last few years of smartphone-clicking than in the past few decades combined (unless your polaroid cam was working overtime!).
Intangible Memories are Easier to Lose
Digital photos are easier to lose because they’re not tangible. Printed photos are usually stuck in a box somewhere, and are relatively safe if you store the box well. You’re not that likely to forget about it. Digital photos, on the other hand, are usually scattered on different devices and across different platforms, and they don’t come together as quickly. You just haven’t looked at them enough to remember all of them, so they’re easier to forget. You’ve never held them in your hand, and that makes a big difference. Many studies show we relate better to things we touch, so I have to believe that tangibility matters. It’s much easier to forget about a few photos on an individual device than about a box of prints that you can physically see.
A Digital System Makes Maintenance Easier
It’s not uncommon for the photo organizing process to take a few weeks, and sometimes clients take hundreds of new photos while we’re in the organizing mode. Without a system in place to deal with all the new digital photos, the to-do list keeps growing, and the project never ends. I like to think of it as a conveyor belt. The photos are just going to keep coming, so it’s easier to quickly set up the conveyor belt to go in the right direction rather than having to deal with an amassing pile of files. Why add more to the mess? With a digital system in place, it’s easier to maintain order, and when your older printed photos are ultimately scanned, it’ll be much less work to add them to your collection.
What do you think? Are you ready to tackle those digital photos?
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We also invite you to visit our sister blog The Photo Organizers for more tips and in-depth knowledge from some of the top photo organizing industry professionals. To find a photo organizer near you, visit the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.