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How to Organize, Store & Share your Travel Photos

Now is a great time to be organising your travel photos and finding some kind of storage and display solution for all those gorgeous travel memories. So many people have memory cards, hard drives and phones filled with photos that will never see the light of day again because they’re hidden away in a chaotic mess somewhere in virtual cyberspace.

Don’t let that happen to your travel photos!

Today I want to share my tips to organise your photos, how to keep them organised, make sure you don’t lose any and the best ways to display them.

Organising your travel photos into digital folders will make it easier to find them and you’ll probably find some old gems you’d forgotten about. It’ll be easier to dig out your favourite pictures and print them out to display around your home or give them to people as gifts (I do love a sentimental photo as a cheap gift idea!)

Most of us are unable to travel at the moment due to the lockdown restrictions. You’ve probably got a bit of extra time on your hands so why not spend some time reminiscing about past travels while organising your travel photos?

I’ve admitted it before that I’m not a naturally organised person, but due to my job as a travel blogger I absolutely have to keep my photos organised! If I’m working on a campaign or I go on a press trip, I can’t lose or misplace any photos. I can’t go and stay in a hotel and then I come to write the review realise I’ve lost all my photos!

I also can’t be in that situation where I go to take a photo and realise my memory card is full! And if a client comes to me and says, ‘We need that photo you took five years ago, we’ll pay you if you can send it to us ASAP!’ I want to be able to dig it out quickly and send it right over!

Here’s how I organise my travel photos while I’m travelling

I backup my memory cards every evening

I always travel with my laptop and each evening while I’m away I backup my memory cards before I go to bed. I’ll usually be backing them up while I’m getting ready for bed as it can sometimes take a few minutes to transfer all the files so it’s perfect to do while brushing your teeth and removing make up!

I do it every single evening because anything could happen to your memory card the following day. The last thing you want to do is keep all your photos from a two week holiday on the same memory card and then lose that card on the last day of your holiday. I usually travel with 3-4 memory cards so I don’t normally wipe them until I’m home.

Travel Hack Tip

Before you begin taking photos, make sure your cameras are all set to the correct time and date. This is particularly important if you’re shooting on multiple cameras. It doesn’t matter if your camera doesn’t adjust to the local time zone, as long as all your cameras are set to the same time. This just makes it much easier to find photos if they’ve got the correct time and date stamp on them.

#1. I buy a new hard drive every year

I buy a 1TB hard drive every year (sometimes every other year) and write the year on that hard drive with permanent marker. This means that when I travel, I’m not taking all my travel photos with me as most of my hard drives are safely stored at home.

#2. I create new folders on the hard drive for each trip I take

Within that folder I’ll separate it into daily folders like ‘Paris day 1’ ‘Paris day 2’ or if I’ve done specific activities on each day I name them ‘Paris – Eiffel Tower’ ‘Paris – Bike ride’.

#3. Within the daily folders I’ll separate it into ‘Photos’ and ‘Video files’
#4. Within the daily photos folder I’ll have a folder ‘Best of’ folder

I’ll put anywhere between 2-40 of the best photos I’ve taken that day. If I’m honest, the other photos that don’t make it into the ‘best of’ folder are rarely seen again but I can’t bring myself to delete them.

#5. Edit the ‘best of’ folder

I don’t do any major edits but I’ll usually lighten and sharpen the handful of photos in the ‘best of’ album. I’ll also rename them for SEO purposes for my blog (this is only necessary if you’re planning to share them online)

These steps take about 20 minutes to do if they’re done each evening while travelling. But if you leave it until you get home after a trip it can take SO LONG! It’s such a mammoth task that I’ll put it off and put it off until it never gets done.

#6. I have monthly folders for the kids

I’ll usually take 2-3 photos every day of the kids so at the end of the month I’ll create a monthly folder such as ‘Kids June 2020’

#7. I make yearly photo books

Each Christmas I make a photo book for my mum. I’ve been doing this since George was born and I honestly think it’s one of the highlights of Christmas for her!

It gets a little bit better each year because we have this growing stack of photobooks and we’ll flick through them all to see how much everyone has grown and changed over the years. I’m so pleased I’ve continued doing this and I can’t wait to look through them in another 5-10 years time when we have a full 15 years worth of family photo books.

#8. I’ll upload my best photos to Google Albums

And finally, as an extra backup measure, I’ll then upload some of my very best and favorite photos to a Google Album. For me, this is usually just for work-related photos as I find Google Albums is an easy way to share photos with my clients – but it’s also another good backup option.

#9. Don’t forget about Instagram

As much as we all love to hate Instagram, don’t forget that is it a gorgeous place to store your photos and memories. I love scrolling back through my Instagram feed to bring back memories from my travels. Even if you set your profile to private, I think it’s a lovely place to keep your memories online in a simple, visual app.

That’s how I store travel photos. Obviously it’s one of those things that’s easy to do if it’s done daily or weekly or after every trip, but feels like a massive chore if you’ve got years of photos to organise! But if that’s you, I seriously urge you to just get it done. It’s like when you declutter your house, it feels so good when you’ve done it and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!

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As the world continues to navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Al Jaber Travel is ready to assist travelers throughout this challenging period. Contact us for up-to-date info on global destinations, ways you can help stop the spread of COVID-19, and tools and resources for staying abreast of this ever-changing situation.

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It’s uncertain when travel restrictions will lift completely. If you’re considering a trip, make sure to check cancellation policies before booking.

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