Q. What are good sites/apps to store digital photos?
Hello Maria,
I know you have mentioned this numerous times over the years but only now do I see that I need it.
I have many digital
photos taking lots of precious laptop space. Can you offer names of good apps to use for organizing and storing my photos and family short video clips?
I’m looking for free options, if
possible. Thank you. Keep up the good work.
-- Eleanor, Cape Town, South Africa
Response from Maria:
Hi Eleanor,
Personally, I've been using SmugMug for years to not only store my digital photos, but to keep them backed up AND to share them with friends and family for years. This is not a free service, but I feel it's very reasonable (around $13 month) to store an unlimited amount of photos and short
video clips.
Other photo storage services that I know of are Google Photos, iCloud, Shutterfly (I think you have to make a purchase every now and then to keep it free), and there are
others. But I'm most familiar and happy with SmugMug...and I'm not making anything for recommending them.
Let me know what you end up choosing!
Q. How do you organize old photographs?
Hi Maria,
How do you organize old photographs? I mean the kind that were developed onto paper.
-- Sharon Ippolito, Chula Vista, CA
Response from Maria:
Hi Sharon,
It's first important for you to decide on the type of storage you wish to
use:
Photo Albums are great for flipping through and enjoying regularly. Some albums can fit 1,000 4" x 6" photos. I really like albums because of the end result...the ease and joy of looking through them.
Photo Storage Boxes are another option. Many include photo box
containers, within the photo box, to sort and organize your photos. To enjoy the photos, you'll have to remove the actual photos and shuffle through them in your hands.
Digitizing your photos will take time to do, but once it's done, they can all be viewed on your computer or online...and can be shared with many people too.
I have actually digitized all of my old photos and keep them stored on SmugMug. To do this, I just took a photo of every photo with my camera. Yes, doing this took patience and time. But now I can enjoy looking at them from time to time, and can easily share them with family and friends as well.
If you have a photo scanner, or want to invest in one, this job could be done quicker.
By the way, here's a little secret...I can't bear to part with my original old photos (they mean so much to me) so I have the printed copies all stored in photo boxes, even though I also have them digitized.
Anyway, once you know how you're going to store your photos, it's just a matter of setting aside time each day to begin sorting them into categories like family vacations, Christmas, school days, and so on.
Hope this helps!
