6 Photo Tips for when YOU take the BIG trip

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks traveling through Italy and Greece with my husband, Kevin, and daughter, Emily, who was studying there. Our travels included the cities of Rome, Siena, Athens, Delphi, the Island of Crete, a ton of little towns in between and so much beautiful countryside. After 8 plane rides, 2 train rides, several bus rides, 1 tram ride, countless car rides, and hundreds of miles on foot (okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it felt like it!), we were ready to return home with our memories and about 1800 photos.

Because it’s what I do, I’m always looking for new, creative ways to capture my memories, and when you have an opportunity like this (and quite frankly you’ve spent a lot of money on the experience), you owe it to yourself to find a way to relive those memories.

Here are 6 tips for when YOU take the BIG trip…

1. Bring the big camera

At the site of the 1st modern Olympics in Athens, Greece.

This is for those crazy people like me that still own the big camera, because truthfully, it takes amazing pics. My biggest packing dilemma was this...should I just rely on my iPhone, which took pretty good pictures, or should I lug around the big camera? Space was at a premium and it’s heavy. I ran into my photo-loving friend, Lisa, a few days before we left and shared my dilemma. Her response was priceless. Basically (after she rolled her eyes at me and visually said, ‘duh’), she kindly but firmly said, “take the big camera”. She was right.

2. Take daily notes

You think you will remember everything…but you won’t. It all starts to run together and names of places in other languages make this even harder. Me, I can’t seem to keep the names of the Pantheon and the Parthenon straight. Some people call this a travel journal, but that sounds too hard. I literally took a spiral notebook from our school supply bin and bulleted our activities each day.

3. Take pics of signs, tickets, brochures and maps on the spot.

We often collect a ton of stuff along the way, which is great, but if you snap a pic of it right away, it is super helpful when you are trying to figure out what a picture is...AND it gives you a digital copy to include in an album.

4.    Take pics on your phone, too.

For some, your phone might be the only camera you use, which is totally fine. There are so many great things about phone cameras. For me, it didn't always make sense to lug around the big camera, or I just didn’t want to, so having my phone camera too, was perfect. Secondly, it is so much easier to share pics back home and on social media with a phone. I couldn't do this easily with my big camera. Third, I loved the convenience of being able to delete the bad pics and doubles along the way in planes, trains and cars. It saves time later. And lastly, if you love to take videos, phones make it super easy and convenient. Overall, easy is a must when you are en route, because if it isn’t easy, you won’t do it.

Phones are great for taking selfies, too! The beaches of Crete.

5. When you get home…organize your photos right away.

I was anxious to see my big camera pics when I got home. However, I wasn’t super excited about going through the process of organizing and gathering all of the pics we took (the big camera, my phone, Kevin’s phone, Emily’s phone). I’m not gonna lie, it took some time, but can I tell you how glad I was that I did it? Even though I was on it pretty quickly after the trip, I had already forgotten what some things were, especially the names (so grateful for my notes!). Because of this, and because I’ve worked with enough people on projects where they only have their memory to go on, I’m willing to invest the time in order to capture the memories. You too will be SO grateful you did this! Here are the steps I recommend to organize them:

• Gather them up into one folder or album on your computer.

• Back up that folder. Hopefully, you have a backup system in place already, but if you don't, copy this folder onto an external hard drive, flashdrive or in the cloud.

• Delete the bad pics and doubles (or triples, etc. that you took so you could get the perfect pic). Don’t spend hours on this. If you are debating it too much, keep it.

• Sort the pics by date. This is where we give thanks for the invention of digital photography...the dates are built-in! Let your computer do this work.

• Rename the pics and add keywords. In our perfect world, renaming your pics in a ‘when, who, what, where’ naming convention is a good idea. The more detail, the more information that will be archived and remembered. If you don’t have that in you, at minimum, rename using the date and maybe the location of the pic. This can be done in batches, which makes it really quick. Always start with the year(4 digits)-month(2 digits)-date(2digits). For example, a good name for this photo would be: 2017-10-20_Emily_AgiosNikolaos_Greece.jpg.

  Keywording your photos is also a good thing to do and gives you good searchability when you are trying to find that special pic.

6. DO SOMETHING WITH THEM!

Once you have your pics organized, do something with them! I ended up creating digital album, which I treasure. There’s nothing like sitting down on the couch with a loved one and reliving those memories. I also made several displays for my home, including a gallery print, a beautiful metal print, and I simply framed a photo I loved. Another thing I didn’t create that I wish I would have is a slideshow. Putting music to photos is magical. It’s also great for sharing.

When Em decided to study abroad, it really wasn’t much of a decision for me whether we needed to go for a visit. It was more a matter of how to make it happen. While the job of curating 1800 pics was a little daunting, it went fairly quickly once I got started. Because getting started on any project is the hardest part, it was important for me to schedule time to do it. And I did. And I am so grateful.

Happy Travels!

Holly Corbid is the Founder/Owner of Capture Your Photos, where we help you to organize, preserve, and share your lifetime of memories. Helping you touch hearts with your photos is our passion. We specialize in digital photo organization and work remotely with clients all over the country.

Find us at www.captureyourphotos.com or contact us here.

Overwhelmed with your photo mess? Getting started organizing your photos can be the hardest part! Grab our FREE GETTING STARTED GUIDE that includes tips for how to create a plan, teaches you how to take inventory of your collection, and provides the form to do it.