So you took all these pictures, now what?
Hopefully now, you have been inspired to take many pictures of your family. But have you done anything with those images? Are they still on your memory card in your camera? Do you show people your vacation pictures on the back of your camera? It's time to get them off your memory card and onto your computer!
"But, I have soooo many pictures! It will take hours to figure out when and where everything took place!" That's okay! There are plently of computer programs to help you organize your pictures.
If you are working on a MAC, then iphoto is great for that I hear. I have no experiance with it personally. Ask one of your MAC friends, or go to the Apple store and ask an assosiate there for help.
I personally use Adobe Lightroom. It is a program designed specifially for photographers to help them organize their images. When downloading, you chose where you want your images to go, can name the folder, and can choose weither you want the images to be organized by date, or all into one folder. There is also a meta data setting so you can copyright your images, tag them, explain what, where, when, why and how the image was taken. You can also rate them with a 5 star rating and a color coding rating. You can even edit the image without damaging the file. It saves the steps you did to the image seperatly from the original so you can always go back and undo everything you did to the image. And that's not everything. I could go on all day... If you are seriouly into photography, and shoot with your image setting to RAW or you like to do lots of editing and playing, then this would be a program you would be interested in. If you have no idea what RAW is, or not all into the editing and tagging and such, then do not fear, there is a program for you! (and it's cheaper!)
My Creative Memories Consultant, Deb Brittain, told me about one of their products called Memory Manager. This is what she says about it: "Memory Manager is a fabulous PC program that helps you organize and find your images quickly! It automatically imports and organizes your photos by the date they were taken. It offers additional simple organizational techniques and ways to cross-reference and fine tune edit your photos. It also allows you to rate your photos with a star system and works in conjunction with StoryBook creator plus which helps you create digital albums. One of my favorite features is it allows you to title each photo and tell the story for each one so you don’t forget those precious memories. To find out more information or to see a demonstration contact Deb Brittain at debbrittain@att.net or 817-907-4087."
So there are no more excuses! Get those images off your memory cards and onto your computers! But wait! You're not done yet. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, back up your images! Burn them to a CD, copy them to an external hard drive, save them to an online data backup service, whatever it is, PLEASE be sure to have AT LEAST two (2) copies of your pictures digitally. You just never know WHEN (not IF) your hard drive will fail and you will lose ALL your precious memories.
Best thing to do about not losing all those digital images is to get them printed. But getting them into a program like Memory Manager or Lightroom will make it a little easier to sort and prioritize the images you really want to print.
Pamela Powell is a photographic portrait artist in Parker County Texas. Pamela received her BFA in art-photography from Sam Houston State University and is a member of the Professional Photographers of America and the Texas Professional Photographers Association.
You can view more of Pamela's fine portrait work by visiting: http://pamelapowellphotography.com
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