Photo Uploading, Selection, and Storage Process

I take many more photos than I can ever scrapbook. Besides the duplicates, similar ones, and those that aren't very good, there are great ones that may not make the cut. I've begun following a process with my photos after a trip or a photo session.

1. Before uploading my photos, I take a quick look while they're still in the camera to see if there are any obvious bloopers or duplicates and delete those right away. I also get an idea of what I'm dealing with – 50 photos or 500? How many different subjects? This gets ideas flowing.

2. Upload the photos to my local drive.

3. I don't usually want to share and print out all my photos, so next I select those I want to share and want prints of – sometimes I have to copy and separate them out to make things easier. Later I delete the copies to save space.

4. Upload to Kodak Gallery.

5. Create albums in KG to share.

6. Order prints.

7. Back to the local drive. If I've made copies, delete them. Separate originals into directories if necessary. Backup all originals to a CD.

8. When I receive the prints a few days later, select the ones I want to scrapbook. Put the rest in an attractive photo safe album – I like the ones with the plastic sleeves that provide room for writing. Label them.

9. Label the ones I selected for scrapbooking, just in case I can't get to them before I forget details. Put them in my photo box for safekeeping.

Self-Timed Photos

A couple of weeks ago my sister and brother-in-law visited me. We did some sightseeing in the Marin Headlands, Golden Gate Park, and Big Sur. I took some great photos that I look forward to scrapbooking. It wasn't hard taking good photos because these areas are so incredibly diverse and visually interesting, and there were three of us to take shots of each other.

At the moment, I am at my family's summer place on a lake in New Hampshire. I come here every year, and I love this place. It's very different from California. Being here alone, I often face the challenge of documenting my visit using photography in more creative ways.

The day I arrived here was beautiful, sunny and warm, just about perfect. I struggled with a way to express this other than just taking the usual shot of the lake and mountains – lovely, but basically the same since I was a child.

Finally I remembered the self-timer on my camera. I positioned the camera to get a shot of me laying on the deck with the water in the background, set the timer, scooted into my pose, and voila! A perfect shot. I used the feature again to get a shot of me reading a book after the weather turned rainy.

I'll be thinking of other ways to use this feature during this trip and incorporate it into my bag of tricks. Yes, my layouts of my vacations alone can include more photos of me. This will be the Year of the Self-Timer.