Getting Organized With Your Photos
I'm an avid instant film photographer. I love all of film's little quirks like the unexpected light leaks and cool exposures.
As of last week, all of my polaroids were all piled in a huge coffee cup (pictured above) and weren't exactly easy to "flip" through. I was searching through the stack to find this one specific photo, when I had an epiphany: photo albums!
I went down the internet hole of searching, and everything I was finding looked terrible! I finally stumbled upon some amazingly cute and practical albums from Urban Outfitters for my Polaroids and Instax photos. I bought practically every color-way they had because I have so many pictures!
The task of organizing all of my photos was daunting, so I broke it down step by step. Hey, maybe it'll help you get organized, too!
Before we go any further, I just want to say even if you don't shoot film, printing your photos out and putting them in albums just has a different feel then scrolling through them on your phone... and I recommend doing it! It could be a fun weekend project, or a cute lil' Valentine's roundup gift for your love or your bestie!
STEP 1: CATALOGING
I chose to catalog my photos chronologically. (Obviously do yours however you want! Random, all flower photos together, alphabetically? It's your album! Mix them up and randomize to your liking.)
I started by making stacks, sorting by by event or general time in which they were taken. Going through my Instagram feed actually gave me lots of great insight about dates photos were taken!
I stacked them up and wrote timeline notes on top before tackling the task of labeling them.
STEP 2: LABELING
On the backside of each photo, I dated and gave context to who was in the photo and where it was taken. That way when myself or someone else down the line wants to flip through these memories, they know all the deets.
For the Instax photos, I stuck washi tape on and then wrote the info on that, and on the Polaroids I wrote straight on the photo.
STEP 3: PLACEMENT
I added all of my photos to the albums just as I sorted them: in chronological order. If I had a lot per general timeline, I grouped the best contrasting ones next to one another.
Make sure to pick your favorites out for the album covers!
STEP 4: GIVE THE ALBUMS A HOME, IN YOUR HOME
Bookshelves are the obvious spot here. Ours was full, but we had some extra space on our bar cart. The albums add even more fun color and pattern to the already stocked shelves.
And now, the giant coffee cup that had all of my photos in it before is used for beer cozies!
Who knows, maybe I'll even leave my favorite album out on the coffee table to show off to friends.
