Photo Night

The Fun Way to Cull Your Photos.

When it comes to photos, I’m a digital convert through and through. I love the convenience and variety of organizing, viewing, and sharing my photos digitally. It’s magic.

Particularly after shooting film for over 30 years.

The darkroom under my Mom’s basement stairs.

Hauling around 2 cameras. One for black and white film. One for Kodachrome slides.

Bags of film on trips. No x-rays, please, at airport security.

Boxes of prints, slides, and contact sheets taking up closet shelves and storage lockers.

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About that.

When clients tell me they’re overwhelmed by the task of scanning/digitizing all their analog photos, I get it. Because I’ve lived it. And if they’ve lived a rich life they likely have a lot of photos to prove it. If you’re like me, you want those photos digitized so you can easily view them in your photo library and avoid a trip to self-storage for that photo of great aunt Pearl.

Logic informs us that scanning them all is overkill, but reality argues otherwise. Why scan photos that you know are going to get trashed?

The thing is that culling down a few dozen photo boxes of prints to find the ‘keepers’ is daunting. It can seem like an overwhelming task and stall the process before it’s even started. Working with a professional photo manager is a good way to ease the burden, but if you are a devout do-it-yourselfer and can finesse the task over time, there’s a simple, engaging way to do it.

Photo Night.

Faced with our own backlog of pictures, Pam and I started exchanging a game of cards for a family print review session. Every few days we schedule an hour after dinner to go through a box of prints and discard anything we don’t care to scan. Our kids are now thirty something’s and it’s fun to relive the beginnings of our family journey a few months at a time.

Those moments that have blurred over time.

Trips that blended together.

It’s a fun way to reconstruct the timeline of our journey.

The exercise also helps revive old relationships. When we run across photos of other families at a party, an activity, or trips, a picture that we might otherwise discard can be sent with a “how are things” message and reminder of the times we spent together.

Then there’s the chance to make notes that can be added to the digital files - the metadata. With Pam and me both weighing in we reconstruct a richer and (hopefully) more accurate storyline.

Mostly, though, culling our photo collection in bite-sized, focused sessions makes the process more engaging and entertaining than if we were powering through the whole stack of boxes over a couple days. It’s a task and a reunion all at once, with just the right pacing for memories to sink in and savor.

There’s also the unexpected treat of discovery. Those moments caught on film that weren’t part of everyone’s experience.

In our case, I was commuting or traveling for a lot of our early family days. Pam managed the kids’ activities and volunteered for school events. I missed most play dates and much of the day to day stuff that children do. But she caught it on film.

There were also family moments of mine that Pam never saw. Not to mention our single lives and legacy family pictures. With a Photo Night approach we can share the stories of pictures we don’t know, and smile together at the ones we do.

Photo by @felipepelaquim on Unsplash

There’s a practical side to Photo Night as well.

Like any big task, splitting up your collection edit into bite-sized pieces is less daunting. You can make progress in 30 minutes. It adds up and you’ll feel like there’s progress.

Culling a couple boxes of prints doesn’t take much space. You aren’t taking over a whole table. Part of a desk or counter will do it. Easy to put out of the way in a cupboard or on a shelf if you don’t finish. When you’re done, swap the box out for another one.

Edit, rinse, repeat.

And, hey, since you’re doing the editing in bite sized groups, consider handing them off be scanned at the same time. You don’t need to wait until you have a truckload of prints. Seeing those long forgotten photos show up in your digital collection regularly just adds icing to the cake. Your Photos Library can chip away at duplicate detection and face ID’s.

Going through print boxes creates the space to absorb and bookmark our lives in a uniquely thoughtful way. Like back in the day. Sitting with our parents on the couch, flipping through an old family album. Photo Night is like a fun, meandering cross-country road trip instead of driving non-stop for three or four long days just to get there. You get to enjoy the scenery.

Which is the whole point, anyway.