Get out your family photos and label them. You’ve seen them a million tines because they’re YOUR photos, but what happens when they’re passed down to others? Will those people know the names of everyone in the pictures? Take some time and label your photos with pertinent information. If you’re working with old photos, take consideration with their age and condition. Devise an archival-friendly labeling system. For digital photos, you can use computer programs to tag the images with names or other identifying information. If that’s too confusing, you can at least save and/or re-name digital photos with details of your choosing. Don’t let another generation slip by without documenting your photos. Your ancestors will thank you. If you have a genealogy blog, share with your readers your system for identifying photos, and even share a photo if you like.
Since I love anything to do with photography, I just had to do this. Well not exactly. Labelling pictures for me is a life long project. When the kids were little, I would sit at their gymnastics, dance or music lessons and label pictures. I would use a ballpoint or an "archival safe" pen - yeah, yeah, I know they will bleed through your photos. I just write really small (and lightly) along the edge where there won't be any damage if it does bleed through. There haven't been any problems...yet.
Now that we are in the digital age, it's much easier since you can batch name your photos when they are uploaded from the camera to the computer. I try and use a general who, what, when, where title for the group. That way, when they are printed out from Shutterfly.com, they will at least have that information printed on the back. I must admit, I'm not as good anymore about labelling pictures with the who.
Another trick has to do with putting photos in albums. I'm not into scrapbooking, so I like to use the albums where you can slip the photos into the slots where there's say 3 slots on a page. Then I'll make up an index card where I write a few sentences, or a paragraph about the group of pictures and slide that into the first slot for the group of photos. This works great for vacations.
Now, I am trying learn about using tags and other metadata to identify information about my photographs. You just gotta love the digital age!
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
I think this will be a life long challenge for me, getting all of my pictures labeled. I get so far and then get more pictures and more scans, it is ongoing!
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