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June's Photo Challenge: Upload photos to your digital frame!

Tuesday 1 Jun 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Digial Photos, Getting Started, Memories, Procrastination, Relatives, Sharing Photos, photos Tags: Digital, digital photo frame, downloading, family, family history, genealogy, organizing, photos, procrastinating, Realtives

A few years back I gave my parents a digital photo frame. It was an awesome idea until you have to try and teach someone how to upload photos onto it from their own computer, let alone assume that they are ever going to take the time to do it.

So now the digital frame is back in my hands and I am suppose to upload photos for my parents wedding anniversary at the end of June. I was suppose to get it done well over a month ago but with my organizing challenge in this past May, I asked if I could put it off some more.

I am already dragging my feet...

So wish me luck!

My Organize Photos Challenge is over!

Tuesday 1 Jun 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Getting Started, Memories, Organizing Photo Challenge, Procrastination, Relatives, Sharing Photos, organizing, photos Tags: family, family history, genealogy, grandmother, Memories, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photos, preservation, procrastinating, Realtives

For the month of May I had a self challenge of organizing 10 photos a day, that's it. And if anyone wanted to join it, then all the better! I did really great at doing this up until around day 17, and then after that I made up excuses as to why I couldn't go do my 10 for that day. My only saving grace is that most days I organized around 30 photos, so I bet if I added all the photos that I did do up, I would still have organized around 310 photos for the month of May.

The biggest challenge for me was that mentally I knew that I was suppose to take photos of the tub that I am organizing every day, post about my experience, and upload some of the photos that I found. I think that doing the blogging end of the challenge for me was the part that made me drag my feet altogether. Organizing 10 photos a day is a snap when you have an area that you can designate just for your photos.

Check out my organizing station from my first post from my challenge.

I still have a ton of photos left to do. A TON! I think that is another reason why I am dragging my feet. I believe the last reason is because the rest of photos seem to be pretty boring. They are of the last 20 years and it's the same people. I love my family! But it's like photos from the beach every year that we have gone, so it's the same faces, same place, just different years.

In the end it will all be worth it!

Who has the rights to a family photo? I need to vent.

Thursday 20 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | 11 Comments
Filed under: Memories, Photo Albums, Question and Answers, Relatives, Sharing Photos, organizing, photos Tags: archiving, family, family history, fears, genealogy, grandmother, Memories, organizing, photo, photos, preservation, Realtives

Today my mom was over at my house and she confessed that she had spent some time down in my organizing station going through all my maternal grandmother's photos (Her mom's) that I've been organizing. She then pulled out three photos that she said were hers and she was going to take them. Well hold up here! They were in my grandmother's photo tub so they are hers, even if the content of the photos would make sense that my mom would feel ownership of them. But now to add to the mix, is that I feel like all the photos are mine since I'm the one who is spending so much time with them. If it wasn't for me and the care and respect that I am giving them, they would never have seen the light of day again.

I was MAD, and am getting worked up again about it. I tried to explain that if she takes the photos then they won't see the light again. Maybe I was being dramatic, but there is that chance!

I have to go into all the photos that I've taken of digital snap shot photos of along the way during my time organizing to see if I did of these three photos. They are three of my favorites and I want them back. I of course want the originals back, but I think she said that she wanted them and would make my Grandmother and I copies. That just doesn't feel right!

Who should own a photo? The person who snapped the photo and paid for the development? The person in the photo? (What if there is more then one person still alive who wants the photo?) Or the person who is not going to throw it back into a big photo tub for more years worth of photos to be piled back onto of it?!

I'm getting worked up. I need to ask her how she intends on taking care of them.

The same thing goes for a bunch of wedding photos that I found of my aunt, my mom's sister. There are a ton, and my aunt said that she has hardly any. Obviously it would make sense that she should have them in her possession, but how is she going to take care of them? Should all the originals stay together with all the original photos that my Gram has and just make copies for everyone?

If I had my way all the photos would stay together in the archival box that they will be placed into once I am done organizing. They will stay safe for years to come and if anyone wants one, they have to make a copy.

Ugh! I feel like they are all my babies!

Day 17 of my Organize Photos Challenge - The month is half way over!

Monday 17 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | 2 Comments
Filed under: Organizing Photo Challenge, Procrastination, Relatives, organizing, photos Tags: archiving, family, family history, genealogy, grandmother, Memories, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photo, preservation, procrastinating, Realtives

To give a litter recap for anyone new to this challenge of mine, I am organizing 10 photos a day of my maternal Grandmother's photos. I figured that organizing 10 a day would be an manageable amount that wouldn't create any procrastination on my part and by the end of the month's challenge, I would have at least 310 photos finally out of the storage tub and into categories in little plastic tubs that I am using as a I sort through the tub below.

I take a photo each day of the tub before I start to organize and the photos that I've pulled out. If I've found any interesting photos (to me they are the older ones), then I'll take a photo of those too.

I welcome anyone to join me in this challenge. You can do the month long self challenge this May or in May of 2012, it doesn't matter when, it's just the fact that you finally do it. And that's pretty much the whole foundation behind my blog, is to finally just organize our photos and to keep them safe so they have a long life for our future generations.

After you enjoy my family photos below, go enjoy your own for a few minutes today!!!

Day 17 before I pulled out my 10+ photos to organize for the day.

4 Generations! I'm the baby :)

Doesn't the photo look fake! It is a reprint from Wal-Mart, but my Granddad is the second from the left. This was taken in the '50s or '60s.

I think this is my mom's oldest siter holder her youngest sister.

Day 14 of my Organize Photos Challenge - Happy Friday!

Monday 17 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Organizing Photo Challenge, Procrastination, Relatives, organizing, photos Tags: archiving, family, family history, genealogy, grandmother, Memories, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photo, Photo Albums, photos, preservation, procrastinating, Realtives

I hope you had a good Friday...last Friday! I did my job of organizing 10 photos that day, downloaded the photos that I took and even shared on Twitter, but never posted about it. It was Friday, it was gorgeous and I just wanted to be outside!

Here's a few picts.

Day 14 - My tub before I pulled out any photos.

Here's my 7 months old son helping me!

This is my Granddad!

...and this is my Granddad.

My mom (on the left) and two of her three sisters.

Day 13 - of my Organize Photos Challenge - moving right along!

Thursday 13 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Getting Started, Memories, Organizing Photo Challenge, Procrastination, Relatives, organizing, photos Tags: archiving, family, family history, genealogy, Memories, Online Photo Storage, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photo, Photo Albums, photos, preservation, procrastinating, Realtives

I am in serious need of just sitting with a cup of tea while the kiddos are napping today, but before I do that, I wanted to organize my 10 photos for the day. But believe me, I had to make myself do it. Not sure why I've been dragging my feet lately, it's not like it's hard. Yesterday I mentioned that it's the writing about my experience here on my blog that is harder then the actual organizing of the photos (you need to have a well set up organizing station/system like I've made for myself before you will ever be able to say the same thing). Like I've mentioned before, I never seem to just do 10, I always do more. I tell myself to do more so the one day that I can only do 10 will be ok (it's become a mental thing that I have to do more). I thought today was going to be an only 10 day, but I noticed that if I just did these couple of grouped piles that I had gotten to in the photo tub that I am working in for my challenge, that I was actually going to be getting through a whole layer. So I now can successfully say that I have made a dent in my photo tub.

Day 13 - Before I started organizing

The photos that I organized today.

Day 12 of my Organize Photos Challenge - Real life just keeps getting in the way

Wednesday 12 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Getting Started, Memories, Organizing Photo Challenge, Procrastination, Sharing Photos, organizing, photos Tags: archiving, family, family history, genealogy, grandmother, Memories, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photo, Photo Albums, photos, preservation, procrastinating, Realtives

It is almost mid way through the month of May, which means that I am half way done with my Organize Photos Challenge where I organize at least 10 photos a day. The organizing 10 photos a day part is not hard, it's the posting on my blog every day that is. The two parts of the challenge for me put together is tough to do because real life just keeps getting in the way.

"Not today, I have a TON of other things that must get done and that can wait until another day when I have more time"

Sound familiar? It's my life mantra, I swear! I was on the brink of saying it again today...just like I said that yesterday (you'll notice that there is no Day 11 post from my challenge). But I did do it today, and although I came across no fun b/w photos, I still enjoyed seeing some of my cousins (that are younger then me) as young kids.

So I guess there are a couple of points to take away from today's post:

Life is always going to keep getting in the way
Tomorrow is not going to have any more time then today
Your living elders are not going to be here forever
The mountain of photos that you need to organize is not going to get smaller on it's own
Your family tree is not going to figure it's self out on it's own
Organizing more recent photos may not be as fun as the old black and white photos, but they still need to be done
When you tackle your photos in small chunks, it's really quite manageable
At the end of the day and you look back over your day, you can be very proud of yourself for organizing a few of your family's photos because that is no small feat!

Day 12 - the photo tub that I am working with through during my challenge

The photos that I organized today. There are more then 10, I have put those in the same category on top of eachother.

Day 10 of my Organizing Photos Challenge - I'm cheating

Monday 10 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Memories, Organizing Photo Challenge, Sharing Photos, photos Tags: family, family history, genealogy, grandmother, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photo, Photo Albums, preservation

Since I am still feeling very proud of myself from yesterday, I am going to count that as two days!

Here are a few more of the photos that were labeled yesterday while my family was all together for Mother's Day. I won't bore you with the details of who these people are in relation to myself, since I am not really sure. My favorite of all four is the last one. Look at his expression, how fun!

Now go enjoy your own photos with a loved one!
:)

Day 9 - A bonus to my Organize Photos Challenge!

Monday 10 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | 4 Comments
Filed under: Organizing Photo Challenge, Procrastination, Sharing Photos, organizing, photos Tags: archiving, family, family history, genealogy, grandmother, Memories, organizing, Organizing Photo Challenge, photo, Photo Albums, photos, preservation, procrastinating, Realtives

Yesterday as Mother's Day so I went to go visit my Grandmother (whose photos I am organizing) since I couldn't make it to my own Mom's house. I had thought I was going to surprise my Grandma by showing her the Flickr site that I recently made and uploaded some of our old family photos to, but instead I just took many of the photos to her. A the last minute I grabbed a archival photo pen in case we got a chance to label a few photos. That was the best decision that I made all day because I ended up getting a couple of my elders to label the back of the photos for me!! So finally, I felt like I had had a break through with my organizing. Photos that I had been putting into an "unknown" bin now had names to go with the faces. People in the photos had finally gotten their identities back and I love that!

So even though I didn't pull out any photos from the tub that I am working with, I still had a great day in the whole grand scheme of organizing my photos.

While my family labeled the photos, I took snap shots of the fronts and the backs so I could later see the names of people in photos easier then going and finding the actual photo. Not really sure if it's a system that I'm setting up, but for now it felt like the right thing to do.

I bought my Grandma this Creative Memories photo storage box a few Christmases ago. I don't use this to organize, but it came in handy to carry the photos to her and keep my categories. When I am done organizing I am going to put as many of the photos that I can into this box to store.

Here's an example of one of the photos that now is labeled forever!

I'm sure there are people who would argue about even writing on the back of photos (and I know why they would), but what error really jumps out at me is that my Grandma only put the first names of each person on the back. Ugh! I am realizing that not everyone "get's it", but I do get frustrated with repeating the importance of details like last names!

In the back row, the middle girl is my Great Grandmother! I didn't know that before yestserday! My Gram knows that the other two girls in the back and my G-Grandmother's sisters and she believes the bottom girls are also her sisters, but she doesn't know who the women is. I wonder if she is my G-G-Grandmother!

Day 8 of my Organizing Photo Challenge...moving right along!

Saturday 8 May 2010 by KnowYourStory | No Comments
Filed under: Uncategorized

Not sure what trend I have going here, but I don't remember any day that I've only organized the required 10 photos a day. I seem to do around 20+. The past few days I've noticed that I'm not happy unless almost my whole table is filled with photos. I will say that this is getting me through my tub much faster!

Today I found one of my mom's wedding photos, and her and her husband were so young! They were very young, teenagers to be exact, but to see them some where in the woods of 30 years ago is pretty awesome.

I also found an old photo of a guy and girl flirting! On the back someone wrote the names but then they cut the photo down so it only shows the couple and now the only word that is made out on the back is 'cousin'. Ugh!!!!!

Other then that, I found some great old trips that my family and I have taken when my Grandmother use to come up to Upstate NY and visit us. It is so beautiful up there. I found some of Lake George, NY, one of someone in the hills, and one from the Thousand Islands. Good times. :)

Today is a beautiful Saturday afternoon so it has been tough doing these photos and now posting, but a deal is a deal! Now go enjoy your photos!

A little FYI: my Twitter hashtag (#) for Organizing Photos Challenge is: #o10p (you can search this to follow relevant tweets. Maybe others will be talking about it too!)

Day 8 - my photo tub before I started to organize

Great photo of this young couple flirting. 1940

Someone cut off the names!!

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Day 17 of my Organize Photos Challenge - The month is half way over!

Day 14 of my Organize Photos Challenge - Happy Friday!

Day 13 - of my Organize Photos Challenge - moving right along!

Day 8 of my Organizing Photo Challenge...moving right along!

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