Sorting & storing pictures?

[janette]

What are your favorite methods? I'm taking my 12yo DD to a Dance Convention this weekend so I'll have an entire day + in a hotel room with nothing to do.

I'm going to bring all my scrapbook things, thought I might get a few pages done but as I've decided what to bring think the time would probably spent trying to make some sense out of my mess of pictures in assorted boxes etc.

I know I'll sort some into themes like Disney & Camp and others that I plan to scrap that way but how do you store all the small events until you get around to scrapping them?

What are the best storage containers for you?

Thanks for all your ideas!

 

[pjlla]

First of all may I suggest...... go digital at the first possible moment.... No more labeling, sorting, dating, etc!!

But as far as the pictures you already have... I sorted mine strictly by chronological order. I bought those photo size, acid-free cardboard type boxes with the spot for the label on the front. One for my DD and one for my DS (I used to always get duplicates and sometimes triplicates of all my pictures).
Have a great time sorting!............................P

 

[janette]

Originally posted by pjlla
First of all may I suggest...... go digital at the first possible moment.... No more labeling, sorting, dating, etc!!

I bought a digital camera last year! My last 2 Disney trips I didn't take any regular pictures, I think I'll pass my 35mm camera on to someone who will use it.

I do like the fact that I don't have to have a print of the pictures until I'm ready. There is another problem though! I have 2000+ pics from those last 2 trips

Oh well - at least they are easy to sort!

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

I use a combination of methods. First of all I have always (made this a priority when first married) made sure new rolls of film go into an album nearly as soon as I pick them up. NO! Not scrapped just an album. Some of the early, early ones were magnetic pages but most are the slide in pockets. I like the bigger ones but lately those are hard to find.

This way people can actually look at the pictures, not get fingerprints on them, etc. I can also slip in notes if I want to.
These are all ring binders so as I pull sets out to scrap I can remove the empty pages, rearrange as needed, etc.

I also have a small pocket storage unit from my LSS. This looks like a box with a handle on the top. I use this in a couple of ways. During football season for instance, as soon as I get a set of game photos of my son back, I will put them in a pocket with a small strip of leftover cardstock noting which game it is and the date. There is no time for scrapping during season. So when I sit down to do those they are already sorted.

When I'm not using that for football season I have also used it to sort other events I am ready to scrap. For instance I was working on DS's Eagle project and pulled the photos from those big books separated them into categories - planning, planting, before & after shots, etc.

Another storage item I have is one of the 12 x 12 divided and handled units from my LSS. I have 2 of these - one for DD & one for DS. I label the sections and have placed momentos and larger (5x7 or 8x10) photos in this. That way when I get ready to do a particular event in their individual books I can just pull the corresponding stuff like certificates out.

I have friend that swears by the shoebox size acid free boxes and she also files things chronologically and with headings such as Christmas, Prom, etc. I use these boxes for my negatives. I am a fanatic about keeping those organized.

As for the digital vs. film debate...well that is a pretty personal issue. Almost as passionate as the type of album one uses! Personally, I'm a dyed in the wool film person. I have a friend that is a professional photographer. His day job is working for the newspaper. He uses some really high end, SLR type digital equipment there. But he still uses film for his other work. Digitals can be great in many instances. But for capturing colors and action, especially in low light (sports, theater, etc) they have some significant challenges to be overcome yet.

My 2 cents worth,
Deb

 

[pattyT]

First of all may I suggest...... go digital at the first possible moment.... No more labeling, sorting, dating, etc!!

Not debating - just stating - went digital and came back to SLR

it's all personal preference

as I take a LOT of pictures and CAN NOT keep up to save my life
I bought all the photo boxes

Gabby's are Black
Matthew's Blue plaid
Family a floral
(you get the point there)

as I usually get free doubles I put pics in appropriate box - one set usually family, and divided the double between the kids).

THEN when it comes time to actually scrap
I have the CM little blue picture divider-
I break down what I want to do for layouts into those.

I am a wierd scrapper though - I don't work in any order - I have tried starting with the old and going forward, and going with current and working backwards.
I am better at scrapping 'what I am in the mood to scrap'

 

[OurDogCisco]

I sort all my pictures chronologically in albums. The albums I buy are from Ross and cost like 7.99 and hold 500 pictures plus I just put the doubles right behind the 1st print. So, it really holds 1000 pictures for me. Also, the albums are acid free. This way I can scrap whatever picture I want. I really don't scrap in order so, this allows me to see my pictures.

Even though, I do have a digital camera, I develop the pictures in regular intervals like once every other month. My reason is that when I first got the camera I waited over a year to develop the pictures. Well, I had over 3000 pictures to develop. It was way too time consuming to go through all the pictures and deciding which ones I wanted. So, I ended up developing them all so, I really didn't save any money. I take a lot of pictures. Now, I make sure I go through all the pictures when they are in the camera and delete the bad ones before I transfer to my PC. Then, I develop all the pictures and only get duplicates of the ones I really like. Honestly, I think, digital is costing me more because I take a lot more pictures than I use to.

HTH.