Home What the HECK do you do with all the photos of the kid??

[TravelingGal]

OK, tips and tricks anyone?

I have gobs of pics of the kid that''s on my computer. How do you manage them? Do you upload to photo sites and actually print them out? How do you back them up? Any good ideas?

I have all of Amelia''s pics on a master hard drive and then they are on my computer and other hard drives on a disorganized fashion. Should fire break out in my house, I''m screwed. I''m thinking of getting yet another master hard drive, backing up the photos and storing it outside the house. But I''m sure there are other ways. I''m two years and 1000s of pics in. Have not managed it well.

What are the best photo printers you''ve found? Photo sites? Yada yada yada...if you''ve got a method to the madness, share them!!

 

[janinegirly]

ha, i''d love to find out.

I have been printing them out but after the 1st year even those started to pile up. That was on my list of things to do today (put it in an album).

I like having hard copies b/c as the years pass it''s fun pulling the album vs. going on the internet.

 

[Shoopy]

I don''t have the answer for long term storage but one thing I am obsessed with are photo books! I stalk shutterfly to catch deals (%off, free shipping, b1g1, etc). They have 5 different sizes. I''m considering doing either one small book per month or dividing it up in 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 and doing 5x7, 7x9, 8x8, 12x12. I would store the books on her shelf next to her other reading books.

I love them! I recently purchased one for MIL for her birthday and on each page put a message from Sophia that started with "I love you because" and then added pictures with whatever the sentence was. For example, one page was I love you because you showed me how to dance and added three pictures of them dancing. Another said I love you because you make me yummy food and pictures of Sophia stuffing her face lol.

Seriously...I''m obsessed

 

[qtiekiki]

I was printing them out for the first 4 months of M''s life, and that''s over 500 pictures. I had stopped since then. Right now the files are on my computer, organized by age in year and then age in months. DH is going back those up. I think, in a few more years, I''ll start making a digital scrapbook for each kid, and print those out.

 

[janinegirly]

I guess I should specify that I only print out a selection and put in albums. The rest are on a photo website and not backed up on disks/hard drives. I did put together a shutterfly photo book on her birthday as well.

The weird thing is I have most photos still on my camera! DH gave me a super high memory card and I can''t bring myself to delete them all--totally psychological!

 

[Sabine]

I keep them in folders on my computer organized by month (I hope to do groups of months soon if I ever slow down in the picture taking) and I do upload all of them to photo sharing sites. I''ve cut back in how many I actually order because ds is only 9 months old and I already have 3 albums full of pictures, so now I only order 3/4 of the ones I take

. But I started the albums back in middle school, and I still have all of those, high school, college, dh and my relationship, etc. up till ds was born, so it made sense to just continue with the albums.

We also have framed pictures in our apartment.

 

[qtiekiki]

Date: 4/23/2010 2:57:14 PM
Author: janinegirly
The weird thing is I have most photos still on my camera! DH gave me a super high memory card and I can't bring myself to delete them all--totally psychological!

I keep most of the photo on the camera until I have to delete b/c I run out of spaces. I take way too many pictures.

ETA: I have 2,546 pics of M for 1st year, and 1,178 for 2nd year. So I did slow down quite a bit. But J only has 310 so far.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

I have the best printed into photo books (from Photobox) every six months and hard copies (also from Photobox) of the good ones. The rest are on my old laptop, which is pretty much defunct. Fortunately I did put them on a memory stick as a back up.

I''ve got a lot of prints, though. An awful lot of very similar photos in hard copy. Some are in albums, but mainly they''re stacked up in one of our "oh God, don''t open the door if we have guests over" rooms.

 

[MustangGal]

I have them on my hard drive, and also on an external hard drive (which was great when my computer fired last year). But both would be toats if the house caught fire. I do upload the better ones to Photobucket (for the grandmothers to see), and my mom and MIL also have tons printed. Not the most organized, but I know there''s plenty of copies of them out there if something happened to my computer.

The first year I had them in files by month, and periodically printed out a few and put them in an album. Now I''m going by season.

 

[packrat]

I''m completely disorganized. We didn''t have a digital camera until London was..well, however old at the time. A year or 18 months I don''t know. So, those are all printed and in a box. The digital ones are in my Kodak thing on the computer, and most of them are uploaded to Snapfish. I tried to be organized there and do like, her 5th birthday in one folder etc. I''d asked one of my coworkers who is big into scrapping and such and she has them on a dvd, on a picture site like Snapfish or whatever, and a memory card or something. Another coworkers suggested-oh I''m so sucky at computer terms..a flash drive? External hard drive? It''s this little thing that is apparently connected to the computer but separate so that if the computer were to crash, the pictures are safe.

I''m bad w/pictures. I still have pictures of London from when she was 18 months old that I''ve never handed out. Gorgeous pictures, and I kept them all for myself apparently. I''m a bad mom w/that stuff. Never finished her baby book, and never even started one at all for Trapper yet.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I have them stored on my computer, DH''s computer AND on an external hard drive that we keep in a fireproof save. I wish I was kidding but I guess we are freaks. I upload the ones I love to shutterfly and print them. I still haven''t gotten to the album part. Hopefully someday.

 

[lili]

I have them on my computer, DH's computer, and a backup drive.
I divide the photos by month up to 2 yrs since I am slowing down w/ the picture taking.
I also upload some of the favorite ones to FB or shutterfly for my family to view.
Haven't print any pictures yet...but should be working on getting her first year album.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 4/23/2010 4:51:01 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I have them stored on my computer, DH''s computer AND on an external hard drive that we keep in a fireproof save. I wish I was kidding but I guess we are freaks. I upload the ones I love to shutterfly and print them. I still haven''t gotten to the album part. Hopefully someday.

opps meant to type safe not save. I think I have slowed down on the picture taking as well. It is amazing how many I have taken in her short 2.5 years of life. Beauty of digital.

 

[lili]

Date: 4/23/2010 6:40:13 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring

Date: 4/23/2010 4:51:01 PM

Author: Tacori E-ring

I have them stored on my computer, DH''s computer AND on an external hard drive that we keep in a fireproof save. I wish I was kidding but I guess we are freaks. I upload the ones I love to shutterfly and print them. I still haven''t gotten to the album part. Hopefully someday.

opps meant to type safe not save. I think I have slowed down on the picture taking as well. It is amazing how many I have taken in her short 2.5 years of life. Beauty of digital.

haha, but it''s also the bane of digital camera since I have hardly any prints.

 

[Mara]

uhhh if someone has the magic answer to this Q it would be great. i have over 600 pics of J and he is 3 months old. i upload the 'best' ones to snapfish and get prints made, i am making him an album. it's probably going to be one of 500 albums but i am trying to capture at least one picture that is print worthy every week.

but yeah i don't have backup on my laptop either, i SO need to get on that.

AND... the new cameras have like 3mp pictures. so i have 600 of those that are 3mp. yikes. holy hardrive overload, batman.

i am also paranoid because i had a ton of photos at ofoto from YEARS ago and they recently did this thing where if you don't buy something they delete your acct and photos, well i was zoning out or who knows what and yep didn't respond so they deleted them. and it was like 3 years of photos, including our 'personal' aka fun wedding photos from 2004. sooo now i try to have photos in 2-3 places just in case.

and BECAUSE of that, janine i also can't delete them off my camera. i am like WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS. so at least i am happy i have some prints made just in case.

 

[Allison D.]

Date: 4/23/2010 2:57:14 PM
Author: janinegirly
I guess I should specify that I only print out a selection and put in albums. The rest are on a photo website and not backed up on disks/hard drives. I did put together a shutterfly photo book on her birthday as well.

The weird thing is I have most photos still on my camera! DH gave me a super high memory card and I can''t bring myself to delete them all--totally psychological!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Janine, please back them up! I''d hate for you to lose them, and it has happened that cards can go corrupt and you could lose everything on it!

 

[Allison D.]

Date: 4/23/2010 6:59:38 PM
Author: Mara
uhhh if someone has the magic answer to this Q it would be great. i have over 600 pics of J and he is 3 months old. i upload the ''best'' ones to snapfish and get prints made, i am making him an album. it''s probably going to be one of 500 albums but i am trying to capture at least one picture that is print worthy every week.

but yeah i don''t have backup on my laptop either, i SO need to get on that.

AND... the new cameras have like 3mp pictures. so i have 600 of those that are 3mp. yikes. holy hardrive overload, batman.

i am also paranoid because i had a ton of photos at ofoto from YEARS ago and they recently did this thing where if you don''t buy something they delete your acct and photos, well i was zoning out or who knows what and yep didn''t respond so they deleted them. and it was like 3 years of photos, including our ''personal'' aka fun wedding photos from 2004. sooo now i try to have photos in 2-3 places just in case.

and BECAUSE of that, janine i also can''t delete them off my camera. i am like WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS. so at least i am happy i have some prints made just in case.

BAHHHHHHHHHH! I''ve been on you on this for SO LONG, and I''m going to harp again for the benefit of everyone here.

Please, ladies, get a quick external hard drive and back up the photos. They are irreplaceable, and until you lose them, you won''t realize how big a loss that really is.

Most of you know I"m a total photo freak. If a disaster were striking my house, I''d take a bag of clothes, my photos, my pets and my husband''s handcrafted figurines. Everything else I can do without, but these things aren''t replaceable.

I don''t rely on online photo-sharing sites, largely because they often purge if you don''t use them OR they could go out of biz tomorrow. Also, I''m a privacy freak, so I don''t really feel comfortable with the online ones.

Here is what we do: I have my photos on my laptop. Both my computer and hub''s back up in real time to a 1tb wireless external hard drive (Drive L.) That drive is backed up nightly to ANOTHER external hard drive, Drive M. Since it''s unlikely that both will fail simultaneously, we''re covered this way.

When we go on vacation, we disconnect drive M and store it at a friend''s house until we return. If (God forbid) the house burns down while we''re gone, we haven''t lost anything.

I also back up to DVDs that I leave in the trunk of the car (again, if I"m not home and everything goes poof), I still have them. However, I''m planning to get one of these Western Digital My Passports instead: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-WDBABM0010BBK-NESN/dp/B002OB49SM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1272152250&sr=1-1. The 500GB starts at just $99, and the 1TB is only up to $149.

They are small (about the size of a GPS device) and can plug-and-play. They come with handy carrying cases, too, so you can store it offsite. This will be what goes in my trunk from now on.

For those who have trusted friends or relatives nearby, one of these MyPassport devices would store handily at their house.

If you feel overwhelmed by tech stuff, go the easy route and get a PNY Swivel flash drive. It''s super small on your keychain and will be the best $11 you ever spent. They come in a bunch of colors, too.

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Swivel-Attach%C3%A9-P-FDU4GBSV-EF-BLU/dp/B002PAR0LU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1272153092&sr=1-5

 

[elrohwen]

I don''t have a kid, but I have years and years of personal photos. I tend to just put them on my computer in files by year, then subject. For a kid I would probably do monthly folders since they change so much, or just date each picture as I saved it. I back up all pictures on external hard drives, and that''s about it. I don''t like printing out any pictures that I don''t have plans to frame because they just get lost and thrown away.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Tgal, I don''t have a child either, but I do have thousands of pictures. I keep them organized by year and album on my external hard drive, AND I upload them all by album to my Picasa account, which links through my Gmail. I do have to pay an annual fee because I''ve exceeded the free amount of Gigs on Picasa (though in the last few months they''ve upped the amount of gigs you get per price level so it''s even better now). Unfortunately, since I like to upload everything and keep everything in full resolution, I no longer have room on my computer itself for all my photos!

Looks like 20 GB is $5/year. I''m currently on the 80 GB plan for $20/year. Hope that helps!

 

[mrssalvo]

i have my pics on my computer, a back-up drive and I upload all the album/frame worthy one''s to snapfish. I use to do creative memories albums but just don''t have the time and have since switched to the digital albums. I did one through Apple and it was great but then switched to Snapfish for more design flexibility etc. I try to go ahead and upload and put pics in the album as events happen or else I end up getting way behind. I have about 2 years that are on a drive that I haven''t done anything with and hope I can remember what things are. I do order prints of my favorites and usually do a Christmas pic of all the kids to give a gifts to grandparents etc. I used to have an album for each kid but there is no way I could keep up with 3 of them. each will get a baby book of their first year and then have to see pics in the family albums. My daughter''s kindergarten room mom uploaded all the pics from the school year to shutterfly so I will put together a kindergarden book for her from that website.