From Babies to Adults

My four boys “Then and Now”

While my two oldest boys were home from boot camp I did what moms do.. took pictures. On Christmas Eve while at my Dad’s house, they got goofy while I was trying to get a family picture. They remembered a picture of the 4 of them, lined up in a picture from when they were smaller. They started cracking up and lined up on the floor.  I still don’t remember the picture myself, but I will have to search for it.. just to be sure.

After they did that I said to them that I wanted to dig out some of their old pictures from when they were small and have them get in the same positions for pictures!!

About 10 minutes before I was to take my 2 oldest to the airport to go back to Basic training in Ft. Sills, OK I said, “Hey guys… we never did the pictures” and I took off for the basement.  I grabbed their old pictures and told them to just give me 3 of them… “Please!!!”

Boys being boys… they will do anything for their moms.. (most of the time) and they did.

Keep in mind we didn’t have a lot of time to really pose… but they sure had a good time doing it!  They were almost 2, 6, 9 and 11 on the left. Now they are 18, 22, 25 and 27.

My youngest was not quite a year in this picture…

LOL.. cracks me up!  You can’t even believe how hard they were laughing for this one!

Then I asked them for a nice one of them…. My boys are so great!

Then we went outside… to get a few more with Joe & Drew in their full uniforms. They can’t wear their hats inside.

I asked Joe and Drew to get together for a shot.. and this is what I got…

John says… I”m ready…. take the picture!

Then we get… “Fine… I’m off to boot camp!”

and this is what he was doing to his brothers…..

My boys…. Then… and Now! I’m so Proud of all of them! Wow… (Joe & Drew are switched in this picture..)

I reposted this post from my Chat with Sandy blog. It was originally posted 1/4/11

How To Organize Photos

How Do You Organize Your Digital Pictures?

Digitally Organizing Photos

Just as in real life, digitally we need to be organized.  You may wonder why, since there isn’t any physical clutter associated with our computer or laptop.  But we can still have “clutter” on our computers.  Photographs can be a big culprit.  Do you load your pictures onto your computer and forget them?  Can you find them when you need them, or do you just have to scan, scan, scan until you see it?   There are some simple ways to make browsing and sharing your photos easy.

5 Ways to Organize Your Photos Digitally

Step 1: Up Load

Load your pictures onto your computer.  There are many applications you can use  on your computer (ie: iphoto, picasa, photoshop)  but pick one and try to stick to it.  Do not use several different ones on your computer and have your pictures in several different locations.

Step 2: Sort

Just as in real life, we need to “sort” our things, and in this case pictures.  You do not need to keep ALL the pictures you take.  With digital cameras we tend to take a lot more pictures than we used to.  It is alright to delete a picture!  If you have 15 pictures of the same subject. Pick the best one, or maybe 2 and delete the rest.  Remember, these pictures can be copied, shared and saved – so you can break away from the “running out of syndrome”.  You don’t ever have to run out of copies of a digital picture.   Keep your best ones and delete the blurry ones, or ones where you cut off the top of someone’s head.

Step 3: Label

Label your pictures.  Try to do this as soon as you upload them onto your computer.  You have the best memory of the event soon after it happens. Add dates, people’s names, events and thoughts.

Here are some other labeling methods

Face recognition: You can label a photo via faces with some computers. (this is from iphoto on Mac)  If there are people in the photo you label a square that is around their face with their name. Your computer photo software then remembers this face and recognizes it in subsequent photos so labeling becomes easier.  The person who views the photo later can place their cursor over the picture and the persons name appears.  Here is a picture of what a Face folder may look like in your computer.

Step 4: Separate

Separating your photos into folders enables you to find them quick and easily.  If you just have all your pictures loaded but not separated in any way, you can be searching forever for a particular photo.

Here is an example of folders from a PC.  But I have all the folders labeled and dated for fast and easy referencing.

This is iphotos folder method.  I used to have a PC and loved how I organized it.

I like having the picture on the front of the folder along with labeling below. As you use the scroll bar to scroll down the pictures you also get the letter of the category you are on. I have mine in alphabetical order.  But it can be more difficult to access these pictures when you are wanting to use a picture for a blog post or to put on Facebook. The text labeling do not show up on that screen.

You can separate your photos into broad events:

Holidays, sports, Vacations

Or you can separate them into more specific events (this is my preferred method)

Christmas 2009, Thanksgiving 2008, Youth Football 2006, San Antonio Vacation 2010

You can separate your folders by dates, events, alphabetically or by place.  That is up to you. But which ever method you chose, be sure you can find your pictures fast and easy.

Step 5: Share and Store

Sharing your photos is what taking pictures is all about. There are so many avenues to sharing with social media today; Facebook, Flicker, Kodak Gallery, E-mail, being able to find your pictures easily  makes sharing them a breeze.

The m-series Kodak cameras even have a Share feature on them. You can mark how you want your photos shared, (Facebook, Kodak Gallery, email) and when you connect your camera to your computer they are automatically sent.

Store – Back up those photos! Be sure to not store your photos on your camera, get them off your camera and onto your computer to use them. But be sure to back them up with flashdrives, external hard drives or an off-site back up company so that you do not have to worry if your computer crashes or is stolen.

Digitally organizing your photos is not hard.  It does take a little extra time when you initially load your pictures onto your computer. But that time will be made up ten-fold when you want to find a picture later.  As with any organizing project, maintenance is required. (But well worth it!)

I originally  wrote this post for Kodak last year.

Creative Memories Story Book Creator Plus Review

I made this photo layout from the Creative Memories Story Book Creator Plus Software.  It was funny, my husband saw it on my site and asked how in the world did I do that?  I was very pleased with how it turned out. This software can make story books, pages for your scrapbook that you can print out, desktop wallpaper for your computer screen, greeting cards, photo gifts etc.

This program was not hard to use.  Basically you pick what you want to work on, rather a storybook or single page etc. and then you pick your template. It comes loaded (besides, plain, black or white with 2 predesigned packages. You can purchase more if you would like.  The one above was from an additional package  called Beautifully Blended Predesigned pages for 12×12. You load your pictures in (which is really fast…that impressed me) and they show up on the right hand side. Drag and drop into the different slots.  The basics.

Now…you can crop, add embellishments and do all kinds of fancy things.  I have to admit that I didn’t have the time to really dive into learning all of that, but it doesn’t look like it would be too hard to do.

I used to sell Creative Memories and LOVE scrapbooking, but have not done any of the digital scrapbooking until Creative Memories came to Type A Mom Conference. They gave us this software and I was more than thrilled to try it out. The layout that my picture was done in is actually one that is not in this software package but can be ordered separately.

Oh….and just so you know how easy this really is….my first page (above) that I ever did I won an award on the Creative Memories site for Best use of Color. Isn’t that cool?

Stay tuned…I will be learning how to digitally organize photos too!!

The one negative I just learned was that it is not mac friendly! I am getting a mac this week so that really bummed me out! But they are hoping by next fall it should be.

Full Disclosure: Creative Memories gave me this software and the additional package that created this page without charge. I was not paid to do this post.

Happy Anniversary Honey

My hubby’s farm is near Amish country in Ohio. These were shots taken along the road on the way there with the beautiful fall colors. The trees are his farm were alive with color.

Disclosure - Creative Memories gave me the software Creator Plus 3.0 at the Type A
 Mom Conference.  I used the software along with another package called Beautifully
Blended Predesigned Pages.