Ten years ago this month, I had tied up a personal project that I didn’t know at the time, would lead to my passion as a Professional Photo Organizer and Photo Life Manager.
In 2010 my in-laws were celebrating their 50th anniversary. My husband and his siblings planned a wonderful surprise party for them with friends and family from all over the country. My task was to scan their family photos to use in a video presentation at the party. I scanned thousands of photos and slides. While I had the scanner set up, semi-permanently on my dining room table, I took the time to scan my mom’s and most of mine as well. What I found is that actually enjoyed the organizing, the scanning and the archiving. But at the time, I was just scanning to get a job done.
About 2016 I was looking for something else to do with my life. I loved nursing, but healthcare has changed, A LOT, since I started in 1981. I enjoy ‘organizing’ in general, but didn’t want to get into whole house organizing. I enjoy genealogy research, but really consider myself a family history enthusiast, not really an official genealogist. I enjoy my family photos. Labeling, organizing, archiving. A quick Google search and I discovered an entire industry devoted to just photo organizing! That was it! I can combine my love of organizing, my love of family history and my love of family photos!
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. – Maya Angelou
As I said above, at the time I was just scanning to get a job done. Now, that I’m committed to preserving memories, I’ve taken the time to learn more. So now that I know better, I do better. I’ve since gone back and rescanned many of those family photos at a higher resolution. I’ve added the story behind the photo in the description. And I know understand and practice the very important step of preserving all of those treasured family memories by backing up onto an external hard drive AND to a cloud based storage system.
I spent almost 40 years in healthcare. I took my role as a nurse and caregiver seriously. I feel the same about my role as a Professional Photo Organizer and Photo Life Manager. I care about helping others preserve and enjoy their photos as they are a glimpse into each family’s history.