Scrapping/Preparing/Organizing Photos Question

[paddlegal]

I haven't really scrapped for at least three years! I realize that the top reason for me is I don't have photos ready to scrap. So my burning question to all of you awesome scrapers is what is your method for having photos at the ready? Are you organizing them on your computer the minute you get home? What is your crieteria for printing them? How do you decide what goes on your LO and what goes into the trash or what do you do with related photos you don't scrap? Do you print your own photos or send them to an online service to be mailed to you?

I'm really curious and interested in hearing your methods. When scrapping challenges go up, I'm always so impressed by how many of you are on it and soon posting LOs. I bow down to your industriousness, creativity and organization.

[pamcook]

I'm all over the place when it comes to photos. Sometimes I send them to Walgreens, sometimes Snapfish, and lately, groovebook.com.
I print in batches - no rhyme or reason to it. I take fewer photos than I used to.
Some people have amazing photo storage organization. I tend to pick up an envelope of photos and dive in. The photo storage boxes hold my photos in waiting.
I always have stacks of photos lying around.

[pbp908]

I print them as I need them. Sometimes I have a photo that I really want to scrap, so it's already printed. Most of the time they're on the computer languishing.

I used to have a folder for each event/date. Then I went to a folder for each month. Now I'm down to a folder for each season. Can you tell I don't take a lot of photos anymore?

[troublesmom]

I'm about like Pam. I have a gazzilion photos here to scrap and have been taking less so not getting as many new photos. I probably have enough left for a good 20 years.

I'm all over the place when it comes to photos. Sometimes I send them to Walgreens, sometimes Snapfish, and lately, groovebook.com.
I print in batches - no rhyme or reason to it. I take fewer photos than I used to.
Some people have amazing photo storage organization. I tend to pick up an envelope of photos and dive in. The photo storage boxes hold my photos in waiting.
I always have stacks of photos lying around.

[mpizzazz]

Farley, you say you don't have photos ready to scrap so does that mean you don't have decades of printed photos from film?
Those are the easiest to grab and scrap.

[nchoney]

As many full scrapbooks as I have.... I still have a ton of photos waiting to be put on layouts. My older ones aren't super organized... but the past few years are at least in some kind of container in chronological order. If the event was bigger, then those photos are in a container of their own so I can grab the whole stack and scrap the event.... like trip to the zoo.. or gardens... or our annual weekend out to visit a friend in Durham...

I take a zillion photos.... and normally I scrap anything worthwhile... I don't print the blurry ones or the ones where people's eyes are closed or they have a wonky look on their faces... LOL

I have no clue why I take so many photos.... documenting the whole world, I guess... but there's no one to leave them to... maybe someone will just look through them and enjoy the ride!

I usually use Snapfish when they have a penny sale and I get a big bunch of photos printed out. I still use my little printer when I want to scrap photos that I just took... I was on a roll there for a little while with photos of Chevie... and I was printing them on the printer rather than wait to send them off to Snapfish.

[Keitha]

I think you're giving us way more credit for being organized than is warranted; at least that's true in my case. I think there are two parts to your questions: one has to do with photo organization, which could be a whole ongoing thread of its own. If I waited to get my photos organized to scrap them, it wouldn't happen in this lifetime. I'm just happy that with digital photos they're all on my computer in chronological order; by default all photos for a specific event are together.

As for having photos to scrap I print as I go - which I guess is the lazy method because I don't have to spend time in advance making all those choices. If I'm working on a big project I know what photos to look at; sometimes, like this morning, it's random and I scroll through my photos until some interest me. I pick and choose, edit and print as I need them - which does mean I need to spend time doing this before I start assembling the page; I'm resigned to that being part of my process. But I like mixing sizes and depending on the story, choosing which will be the focal photo on a LO, so this gives me the most flexibility.

Mostly I do two-page, multi-photo layouts because I always have lots of photos I want to scrap of any specific thing. I'll have a gander at what I've got to give me an idea of how many need to go on the page, then I usually see if I've got a sketch somewhere that more or less works; I often divide a photo square in half to accommodate 2 photos where the sketch shows 1. Then I do a final edit to narrow it down to the best photos that fit on my sketch, edit them for size and print them.

Occasionally I want to jump in with paper and glue and will go to the boxes of older photos I have for something to scrap; those are sorted chronologically, at least by decade if I couldn't narrow it down further.

The only time I trash a photo is when I find ones that are completely unusable (blurry, etc.) as I'm sorting through them; I don't spend time doing this. Anything I don't scrap - and that's probably way more photos than I do - just resides on my computer/hard drive/CD backup, or in the photo boxes if they're old prints from film.

Just jump in, one page at a time.

[ScrappinJen]

Big trips, I usually go through and print waaaay too many. I have waaaaaay too many from South Dakota. Learned my lesson. I'm bored with a trip before I finish it.

For Arizona, I am going to severely limit the number of photos I print. Just the ones I want to scrap, as I need them. Which does require some planning. And, of course, now I have my favorite toy, my Selphy, for quick iPhone photos.

As Marianne says, I have years of organized photos in Photo boxes from my pre-digi days. So I could always grab some of those.

And we won't even get into the slide question. Our first ten years together are only slides. So I need to get back to that project. Where it will be easy to limit the number. I'm usually not overwhelmed by their quality so I only want to print enough small photos to document a trip or story in our early years of marriage.

Did I answer all questions? Oh, storage. As disorganized as I am in most of my scrappy life, my prints are all organized in photo storage boxes. Negatives in sleeves in binders. Digital photos are all organized by date in folders on external hard drives and CDs. Easy to find using a program like Lightroom or Bridge or even the native Windows software.

[Debbie J]

I use the helter skelter method......kinda like my craft room!

[paddlegal]

I use the helter skelter method......kinda like my craft room!

Thanks everyone for such prompt and helpful responses. Keitha you're right about just jumping in. I certainly have plenty of chronologically stored prints that I could dive into. As I've thought about my conundrum all day I think what I need to do is perhaps grab a year and get them into pocket pages PL style. I've only been collecting PL kits for a year or more. Sheesh. But I love seeing everyone's more artful pages too and hope to mix both styles.

I'm a card maker/stamper at heart and my room is set up as such. If it hadn't been for ALSB and PSLs I wouldn't have any albums at all. Really I just need to get off my butt, clear a space and DO it.

Thank you all!

[azemigh]

I tend to do more digi scrapping than physical now, but I still have 2 small (shoebox size) boxes of pre-digi photos to scrap. I print my own if it's just a small project or page or two. If it's a vacation with a lot of pics, I'll upload to Walgreens or somewhere and get a batch for that. I'm one of those superorganized people on the computer. I have things organized by event and year usually. I usually do a seasonal miscellaneous file for each year too.

I believe I have scanned all the slides and negatives that I know of; there's probably another box buried in the storage locker somewhere though, I couldn't possibly be done with that could I?

I'm about to start on the conversion of vhs to digi; The 2 moving boxes of those stare at me every day when I walk into my studio.