personal help to take control of your digital photos

Here’s some things I hear people say (and e-mails I get) all.the.time:

“My photos are a complete mess.”

“I’m not printing anything.”

“My photos aren’t backed up and I’m so afraid I’ll lose them.”

“I don’t even know where to begin”

“How do I get caught up?”

And on. And on.  And on.

This whole digital photo age, something that should have made managing our photos easier, has seemingly made it harder.  So many photos.  So little time.  And one big hot mess of memories we want to preserve but don’t know how to get caught up, where to start, or where to go from here.

It’s something I’ve recently tackled myself (I currently have 80,000 plus personal photos in my Photos library).  I’ve learned a LOT through this process and have made it a huge priority lately to help people get control over this part of their lives and their stories.  We’re all taking photos.  We want to preserve the stories.  But the BACKend of photography can be incredibly overwhelming.

But it doesn’t have to be.

There ARE ways to manage our photos.  There ARE ways to get control over what we already have and be more mindful of how we approach preserving memories in the future.  There ARE systems we can put in place to relieve the anxiety, stress, and overwhelm many of us feel when it comes to managing our photos.

 

In preparation for the launch of the online photo course, Tell Your Story, I’ve been laboring on for quite some time now, I’m going to be teaching a LIVE Tell Your Story class on Saturday, November 5th in Lehi, Utah.  This will be an in person, full day class.

The purpose of the class–to manage your digital photos in a way that works for YOU.  This is not a one size fits all system.  This is a “what works for you and your family” system.  And there IS a system for every person out there.  And I want to help you find it.

In the class, we’ll work through four stages of the backend of photography:

**Loading your photos.  Getting them all in one place and in one system so you can manage them.

**Backing up your photos.  Making sure you have a SOLID back up strategy so you never lose any of those photos you’re taking and stories you’re trying to preserve.  My computer hard drive has failed THREE times in the past year.  And I didn’t lose a single photo.  It was a complete headache restoring things the first time because I wasn’t doing everything in the best way possible.  The second time was not nearly as stressful as I had a solid backup strategy in place.  Making sure you have this in place is so so so important.

**Organizing your photos.  This seems to be a huge hangup for people.  What’s the best way to organize them?  And HOW do you go about doing that?  We’ll talk in depth about this and we’ll actually physically do the organizing while we’re in class so when you leave at the end of the day, your photos are organized and ready for the next phase (printing).  This isn’t as complicated as people sometimes make it.  Simple systems.  Huge results.

**Printing and displaying some of your photos.  Notice I didn’t say all of your photos.  Once you have your photos organized, my guess is you’re waaaaaay behind in printing anything.  Most people I talk to haven’t printed anything in years and years and years.  Which is OKAY.  There are ways to “catch up” (and that may not even be your end goal–something we’ll discuss for sure).  There are several things to consider when deciding how to do this.  What should be printed at this point?  What system works best?  So much to cover here and we’ll talk about all of it in the class.  When you leave the class, you’ll have a system in place for sharing the photos and not just hoarding them on your computer.  We’ll talk all about choosing the photos, how to edit them and get them print ready, where to print them, etc.

 

Some important things to know about the class (PLEASE read all of this before you choose to sign up):

**It will start at 9:00 am in Lehi, Utah.  My estimated finish time for the class is 4:30 or 5:00 but this will all depend on how many photos you have, how long it takes to organize them, etc.  Some of this process is just waiting while our computer does some work.  Some people may end earlier, some closer to 5.  I want to make sure you have your systems in place before you leave.  You may still have a little work to do when you leave (definitely some work with the printing part) but you’ll have the peace-of-mind of knowing how to go about all of it.  We’ll go over some things together, but some things will be a work at your own pace kind of thing.

**Lunch will be included.  Somewhat tedious tasks combined with hangry women is no good.  We’ll be sure to have food on hand.

**You MUST have a MAC computer.  The computer you plan to manage your photos on has to be a MAC and you have to be able to bring the computer to the class (thankfully Mac’s are easy to transport).  It can be a desktop or a laptop.  Whatever computer you manage your photos on.  We’re going to be working with your photos and you obviously need your computer there to do that.  Not trying to be a snob on the type of computer, I just need everyone to have the same program so I can help everyone understand things at the same time.  I may do this for PC users some other time depending on demand.

**There will be some pre-work you need to be able to do before the class.  I will send more details on this once you sign up, but be aware, there will be a few things you’ll need to do before hand so we can all start at the same point.  I’ll tell you exactly what once you’re signed up.

**You may be asked to purchase an external hard-drive before the class.  Again, we’ll assess this upon signing up, but that may be something you’ll want to buy.

**The class size will be SMALL so I can give one-on-one help to each of you throughout the day.

**Please note we will not be going in to “tagging, key-wording, etc.”.  The organization part of this class will be a very simple and basic method for organizing.  But a very effective one.  I can talk individually to people about tagging and key-wording but that will not be a big portion of this class.

**I am NOT a tech expert.  But I don’t have to be.  I’ve gone through this process and want to show you only what you need to know to manage your photos.  No extra fluff or overly technical things that often leave people confused and frustrated.  If we run into an issue I can’t solve, I’ll make sure we find an answer.

 

This is basically me sitting by you, going through your computer, making sure your photos are really backed up, helping you get them organized in a way that makes sense for you, and making sure you have a system for sharing and preserving them (printing, etc.).  Instead of just telling you what to do, I’ll SHOW you what to do and we’ll actually do it right there so you know exactly what to do and how to do it.  And you can ask questions in real time so you don’t get hung up and give up.

When you leave, you will have a better understanding of what photos you even have, what to do with those photos once you take them, and how to create a system so you can print those photos and share the memories you’re so diligently trying to preserve.  You will feel so.much.better at the end of this class about the “health” of your digital photo mess.  It won’t be a mess anymore.  One Saturday.  Huge results.

Based on the amount of emails I get and the questions I’m asked, I know there is a huge need for this and I’m dedicated to helping you.

 

The cost for the course is $137.

That cost includes:

• some pre-instruction and help before the class begins
• an entire day of instruction and personal one-on-one help getting your digital photos in order
• lunch
• a happy computer full of photos and memories that are organized and ready to be shared
• relief from the stress and overwhelm of digital photo hot-messness
• and e-mail support after the class is over if you need some more guidance after you get home (I’m going to take care of you–promise)

So.  If you want in to this first ever live Tell Your Story course on the backend of your photography, here’s what you need to do.

Send an e-mail to [email protected].  In the subject line of the e-mail please put “Tell Your Story class”.  In the e-mail tell me your name and e-mail address and I will send you instructions on how to pay and reserve your spot.  Your spot is not reserved until your payment is made.

The class is capped and will be filled based on the first people who e-mail me.  If it fills, I’ll post on here that it’s full.

If there are any questions, please e-mail me at [email protected]

Let’s make some use of the thousands and thousands of photos we’ve got stored and continue to take!!  You can do this!  You and your memories deserve it.