Contributing Writer: Jill Thompson, Inheritance of Hope Family Legacy Director 

Technology has made taking pictures so much easier. We no longer have to worry about getting film to a lab or spending money on pictures that have poor quality or lack value to us. The problem is now most of us have many photos on many different devices, and we don’t know what to do with them all. We want to be intentional with our memories and have them in formats that we can enjoy, but we are overwhelmed by that task.

Here are a few tips to help you capture and organize your photos to enhance and expand your legacy for generations to come.

1.     Take lots of photos! I know it seems like that would add to the problem, but it actually helps by giving you options and allowing you to capture more memories. As you are taking photos make sure you are in them. Use the self-timer on your phone, take selfies with your family, or ask a friend to take a photo so your whole family can be in it together. At the very least, take turns with the camera so that the same person is not always missing from pictures. The last thing you want is to create a legacy that doesn’t include you because you are always behind the camera.

2.     Organize your photos. There are many websites that devote themselves to organizing your photos and videos. These sites are well equipped to handle massive amounts of photos. Not only do they allow you to keep your photos organized, but they also provide a safe storage location. If something happens to your device, your photos are safe on the internet and accessible from any device at any location.  

Here are some popular photo websites I often use:

• Shutterfly. This free online website offers unlimited photo storage and easy organization into albums. The best part about this website is that it stores all your photos on a timeline that allows you to easily scan for events or memories. Another amazing feature is “people tag” which automatically registers the faces from your photos into batches so you can easily pull up all of the photos of one person with a click. Shutterfly offers a free “desktop uploader” on their site that you can set to automatically backup all of your photos as they are added to your desktop or laptop. If you take a lot of photos on your phone, there is also a Shutterfly app that allows you to upload photos from your camera roll directly to your Shutterfly account. Alternatively, if you use a cloud service, the photos on your phone will automatically be added to the Shutterfly account with the desktop uploader that I mentioned above. Shutterfly also offers video storage for a small monthly fee.
• Forever.com. This online service offers a free membership for limited video and photo preservation. They also offer an unlimited, permanent storage location for a small monthly fee membership. This site will also transfer media to a digital format including scanning old photos and converting old videos to a digital format.
• Flickr. This online tool allows you to upload photos and videos to share with friends and family. The settings allow you to keep your albums public or private, and the system is set up to receive files from websites, phones, and computers. The unique feature of Flickr is that other people can help you organize your files by adding comments, notes, and tags (with your permission, of course).

See how easy it can be? Make a plan to get started today. Do a little bit each day during your down time. It can be a treat to reflect on fun memories as you sort and organize.