Tuesday Tip

Make a date with your DELETE button. And don't break it.

While I've been away enjoying the holidays, a little blogging break and some much needed time away from computer, it's time to get the first post of the year done. But, that couldn't happen until I finished my work...on the computer. While I don't make New Year's resolutions, I do make lists. First up on the list for 2012? Clean up my computer files. The pictures, in particular, were out of control! I started with our family Christmas pictures from this year and worked my way back. Way back. Three years worth of vacations, holidays, birthdays, and way too many random shots. You know the kind. The ones you look back on and have no idea what was interesting about anything in the frame?

I took a picture of these birds from a family trip to Orlando in 2010 because I thought they were interesting.
The actual truth?
  I took it because we all thought they were conjoined...until they started to move. Yes, we felt stupid. Delete.

I started with the most recent images. I deleted duplicates and any undesirable shots, then cropped/edited (I don't know how to photoshop, but it's on the list of things I want to try to learn one day) any photos that needed to be cleaned up, and finally dragged what remained into labeled folders and copied each folder onto a disk and labeled it.

Three years of neglect took many hours, over a three day span to clean up.  But it was absolutely worth it to finally complete this task and put an end to worrying about losing cherished images forever. And, the added bonus is that now I won't be wasting time in the future looking for a particular image! The next step will be to print and frame some favorite pictures. It's been awhile since I've changed any family photos and now I'm really looking forward to doing it! Then it's on to tackling all those blog images I've accumulated...