Photo Storage

When first starting a job for a customer I place all the pictures in big plastic bins. After most of the photos are somewhat assembled by months and years, or whatever system you have, I begin to draw pictures to place in albums. Of course, all of the pictures will not be used, especially the ones that are duplicated or blurry. I have already touched on this topic before. The photos are kept in chronological order. As the group begins to dwindle down, I transfer the photos to photo boxes similar to the ones that are pictured here. Pictures do not ever get thrown away because the customer may have further use of them in the future. There are so many pretty boxes that I can tailor them to the personality of the customer. These and the completed albums are given to the client. I have had a few people ask why there does not seem to be more pictures. Organized projects take up so much less room so it may seem all of the photos are not there.

Stray Photos

We have been at this organization project for almost seven months now. Feeling overwhelmed? You have to realize we are dealing with years and years of pictures. If you have made it thus far, you have made quite a dent. Look back now and see how much progress you have made. I take breathers along the way to feel refreshed and maintain the desire to continue. It is a long process but it will be so worth it when you are completed. So keep plugging away - a little bit at a time. Do you think that you may have gathered most loose pictures? There will always be a stray even when you think you are done. It is amazing that there may be a perfect spot in your albums for them. I will talk next time about storage so hang onto those strays.

Christmas 2008-New Year's 2009

What a celebration! My daughter flew from Portland to meet me at Bill and LeAnn's house in Chicago. We had a snowstorm in Seattle the week before Christmas and the van was stuck in the snow the day I left. We joked that I couldn't fly to Chicago because I couldn't even get out of the driveway (that wouldn't be funny if that really happened)! We flew to Omaha to celebrate with Bill's family in Oaha, NE. I was planning to come back around New Year's and I only made it as far as Denver due to an ice storm. So . . . back to Chicago for a couple more days. That place is United Airlines' hub so it takes awhile for the schedules to straighten out when the weather plays havoc causing delays and cancelled flights. I made it to Seattle Wednesday January 7 amidst heavy rains. I was planning to pick up Nike, my dog and go home. I drove down to Tacoma to get Nike and ended up staying there by myself for three days because Chehalis was flooded and the Interstate was closed! Amidst the difficult weather, we still had an enjoyable time.

Collages

Often times, there are numerous pictures of the same person or activity such as playing in the leaves or building a snowman. I will get permission from the customer to cut the photos smaller and make a collage or place them in sequence to show the progression of the activity. More photos can be used this way.

A project might have pictures of a child for every grade they participated in school. You can use a wallet-size picture for every year, placing them in a circle around a larger baby picture or graduation picture. The larger school pictures (5x7 and 8x10's) are put into folders for other uses. Space is saved in the album and you can see how a child has changed over the years.




A collage can also be used to show the many different emotions of an individual, the growth of a flower, or the emerging of a sunrise.

Another idea I might try is sort of like a puzzle. Take a 5x7 and cut into equal, smaller squares and space a little bit apart from each other. I have seen this done with pictures on a wall so I thought it would be neat in an album. Make sure you have a negative or original before attempting this feat.