These days, it’s easier than ever to take pictures of our kids. And while that’s definitely not a bad thing, taking some time to consider what kinds of pictures you’re taking and what you will do with them is important, so that you don’t miss life itself while you’re documenting it.
Here are a few key points to keep in mind when it comes to snapping pictures of your kids.
Safety first
Everyone has their own level of comfort when it comes to sharing pictures of their children online, but one matter to be aware of is location tags on your photos. Child safety experts recommend that you turn geo tags off so that people cannot find the locations your children frequent, especially your home. Third-party social sharing apps may add their own location data, so check the settings for these apps as well.
Think about what you want to do with your photos
Without at least a vague end goal in mind, it’s all too easy to take thousands of pictures that live exclusively on your phone. This creates a couple problems: One is that you run the risk of taking too many photos without parameters to help you stay within some self-imposed boundaries. For instance, if you know you will make a photobook of your family trip to the beach, you might be aware to take a few good pictures at the beach, in the beach house, at your favorite restaurant, and a scenic shot or two of the ocean. You know you won’t need seventeen shots of your child digging in the sand, so why take them?
The second issue is managing all the photos. When you have an end in mind, you’ll automatically limit the number and kinds of pictures you will take, in a good way, and you’ll save both storage space and a bit of your sanity organizing an otherwise vast multitude of pictures.
Cull your photos regularly
Whether you do it at the end of every day, every month, or after a major event, make it part of your routine to delete the multiples you have of essentially the same photo. By winnowing down your collection to the “best of,” you’ll be able to actually enjoy your photos rather than getting glazed over scrolling through duplicates. In addition, when you’re ready to do something with you photos, whether it’s a slideshow, photo album, or something else, you will have the hardest part of the work already finished.
Have an easy backup system in place
Photo organizing experts recommend the 3-2-1 rule, which basically means that you have three copies of your photos stored in two different types of media, with one copy being offsite. So, for instance, if you have photos on your hard drive and backed up in the cloud, with printed photo books of your favorites, you’ve adhered to this backup strategy. A successful backup system also involves having “master” copies of your photos all in one place and that the backup happens automatically, so you know all your photos are being backed up and it doesn’t depend on your memory or effort. This all could feel like a lot to think about, but the time and effort put into a tight backup system is absolutely worth the peace of mind you get knowing you don’t have to worry about your precious memories being lost forever.
Being mindful about what you can do to make your photos safe and purposeful will help make your picture-taking even more meaningful than it is. And that’s something we can all smile about.
About the author:
Shifrah lives in Tallahasse, FL with her husband, four children, two cats, and dog. In the midst of mothering and writing, she enjoys reading, lifestyle photography, sewing, going to the beach, and documenting it all in pocket scrapbooks. She drinks her coffee black.
