how I avoid the digital dust

When I took my very first photography class, the instructor's final words were this, "So many of us have hundreds, maybe thousands, of photos that sit on our hard drives and collect digital dust...don't fall into that trap!"  Sccccreeeecccchhhh.  It was that point in the movie that the music stopped playing and everyone stared at the person doing something stupid.  And in this movie, that stupid person was me.  I vowed to never fall into that trap again.  Ever since then, I have worked very hard to avoid collecting dust on my digital files, and lucky for you, I'll share how you can too!

please excuse the filthy computer screen.

 Let me start by saying that I'm very honest with myself.  I know when I buy something if I'm not going to wear/eat/use it.  The fact that sometimes I ignore that honesty is an entirely different story, of course, but that's a different post.  Anyway, when decorating our house, I was very honest with myself about photo displays.  I know I will never be that person to take photos out of the frame and replaces them with new ones.  My reason? I hate those little things on the back of the frames that you have to use your finger nails to move.  It feels like some sort of ancient torture practice on my poor fingers!  I'm sure there are frames that have a healthy price tag that avoid this absurd pain, but I'm cheap.  My solution?  This fabulous clothesline photo hanging thing.  I used cheap hooks and some yarn to create the lines and spray painted clothes pins.  Viola! Easiest way to exchange photo displays...ever.  And if I ever have guests that like a particular photo, I let them take it.  Mostly because I'm awesome but also I hope they will let me take something from their home.  Just kidding.

The hardest part for a lot of us is to get the photos from the camera to the photo displays in our houses.  When I took my photography class, my digital dust wasn't on my computer but rather my camera.  I would take pictures and they would sit there and die.  By the time I remembered I had them I didn't even care.  I am now an uploading Nazi.  Here's my workflow for my personal photos: 1. Take awesome photos. 2. Immediately upload awesome photos and edit all photos within  3 days 3. Export (I'm using lightroom) awesome photos both with and without watermark (I used the watermarked photo for Facebook or my blog) 4. Save all files in a monthly folder for printing 5. Print/create photo items once a month.  See!? Presto chango, y'all! You just took digital files and turned them into fabulous print memories! (I get all of my prints from Nations)

Another thing I'm crazy about doing is making photo books. When I was pregnant and we would take monthly photos or have any kind of baby prepping milestone, I would upload the photos immediately and add them into the book (I use Nations and Shutterfly for my books).  When I delivered, I only had to add the hospital photos and push order.  My husband made fun of me throughout my pregnancy for being such an album making lunatic, but when it showed up he sheepishly told me it was a good idea.  Bam! Right again.  Will he ever learn?  A good rule of thumb for me is to have books or prints ordered within a week of any vacation or big event.  I'm a beast, I know.  Even my iPhone photos make it into a book thanks to the chatbooks app.  No digital dust here, people.

My books always stay out so they can be looked at often and my favorite recent photos are always hanging.  I'm in love with the things I've done in my life and the photos I've taken and I want other people to see that when they come into my home.  This is who we are and these are the things that are important to us.  Also, I've learned that if I don't take care of uploading and printing immediately, it will NEVER get done.  So get off this blog and get to ordering, y'all!