My December resolution is to take more pictures. Parents have the subjects to photograph but not the time (or the third hand to hold the camera! 
)
Once upon a time, I took tons of pictures. As the kids grew, I snapped less and less.
Usually my hands were full. Try as I might, I couldn’t juggle the babies and the camera. As they moved into toddlerhood, I couldn’t keep them away from the camera long enough to snap the pictures.
Now, I just plain forget to take the camera.
With the holidays upon us, I am making an early resolution to take tons of pictures during the month of December.
And while we are on the subject, does anyone have any good tips for keeping their digital photo libraries organized?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I am so with you on this. I took too many pics of my first and then somehow became too busy for the next. I now carry my camera with me everywhere and I archive my pics to CD based on season and year. I also delete all the “bad” ones and keep only a handful of good shots.
Michelle,
You are extremely organized – I am turning green with envy! I need to tackle my backlog and still handle any new pictures that I take. How often do you work with your pictures to keep from falling behind?
I’ve found the easiest way to organize the files is simple to archive to CD/DVD or an external drive at the same time that you download the images to your computer. Write the date and content and file the CD away as a backup.
Make time to photograph them when they’re involved with something they love to do and be aware of the light and background. Use soft window light or wait until just before sunset to take advantage of that gorgeous light outdoors.
Dare to say no to cheesy smiles…talk to them while you’re photographing them and ask questions or say things that you know will illicit a smile or a laugh and then snap away…
Neena, great job with the site and westport-kids.com!
I don’t know what software you might have but as a photographer, I usually begin organizing my photographs by year on my computer. And then I place them into folders by date.
Photoshop Elements is great for further organizing your photos by keywording your photos. You can then do a search on your computer for those keywords. For instance if I were to need photos of my son, I would do a search for “CJ” and all the photos tagged “CJ” would appear. I believe Windows 7 also has this feature built in.
If you have a backlog, this can be time consuming. But once you do it, you will find future organizing to be less time consuming.
Patty ~
A good software package is a great tool for organizing photos. The key is to know all the features. I use iPhoto – and have only recently learned about some of the capabilities – like, I know this sounds basic, FOLDERS. I knew about events and albums – but totally missed the folders feature. This has made a big difference in how I catalog pictures and has made things a lot easier.