Project 365 organisation

Taking a photo a day is a great way of recording big and little moments of life, from family activities to the weather. I’ve taken a photo a day for the last two years and learnt it is important to have a Project 365 organisation system to keep on top of all the pictures you take. The tasks I’ve found hardest are collating the pictures I’ve taken on different devices and selecting just one picture for each day. I describe my process below and you can watch me work through the process in a YouTube video linked at the bottom of the post.

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Collating pictures

Each week I usually have pictures on my phone and camera, but I could also have them on our SLR or my daughter’s camera depending on which was to hand when I took a picture. It is important to collate these pictures in one place so I know I’ve looked at all my pictures for that week before selecting my favourite. My process is:

• create a sub folder within your Project 365 folder structure for the week; I have my Project 365 folder on a memory stick so I can review the pictures on my tablet as well as my computer
• transfer photographs from all memory cards and devices and save them in your usual folder structure; ours is organised by year and has a subfolder for each child and event
• search these folders for photos taken during the relevant week; instead of going into each subfolder, I go to the folder for this year and use the search functionality to find photographs modified during the week
• copy these pictures to the relevant subfolder in your Project 365 folder; it is important to copy them so you retain them within your main folders

All your photographs for that week are now collated in the same place ready for review.

Selecting pictures

Digital cameras are great as we are able to take several pictures of the same event to make sure we get a good one, but it does mean it is harder to select just one photo for each day as there is so much more choice. Sometimes it is easy to select pictures because you’ve only taken one, but for days at a party or on holiday you may have taken tens or hundreds, and I admit some weeks I create scrap layouts with eight pictures; but never any more. My process is:

• rename pictures so the filename shows the date the picture was taken; I change mine in bulk using Bulk Rename and rename them in the format YMD with a sequential number added on the end
• create  a sub folder called “Not use”
• review photographs and move any you don’t want to use in to the “Not use” folder, keeping an eye on the dates in the file names to make sure you retain at least one picture for each day
• review your final pictures and decide if you like the balance of pictures and if not look for alternatives in your “Not use” folders; I like to have a mix of people and non people for each week
• present your pictures using your chosen method

My aim with my Project 365 scrapbook layouts is to  have a summary of the year so I want to be able to look at a page and be reminded of the things we’ve been up to, so when I’m choosing my pictures I select the ones that tell the best story of the day instead of the best photograph.

What is your Project 365 organisation system? What works and doesn’t work for you? What are your tips for completing Project 365?

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