Paperclipping: The Video Podcast | Design Your Story

I definitely back mine up. If I were as awesome as I would like to be I
would back them up every time I add new pic's or at least every Sunday. In
reality I probably average about once a month backing up.

Last year I almost deleted our current year of unprinted photos. Had we not
found them in my computer's trash, believe me, I would have been running to
my hard drive backup! :)

But yeah, while I'm one of those die-hard photo deleters (I REALLY only
keep my favorite ones and delete tons) I still want to ALWAYS have those
favorite ones for many reasons:

1) I often go back and print more versions of a photo I've already
scrapbooked. I use a photo in multiple ways at different times.
2) I don't print and scrapbook everything immediately so if I were to lose
the ones I haven't printed yet I'd be so so sad.
3) I often have new stories to tell that would be best illustrated by an
earlier photo that I scrapped previously for a different reason. I very
often print another version of a picture I've already printed and used
before. I am constantly wishing that my old negatives were digital so that I
could more easily access them. I want to use them all the time. I would hate
not having the ability to reprint old photos because they were lost.

So, yeah, I'm one of those who proclaims that we have too many photos. But I
don't mean to say that it's no big deal to lose your favorite ones. I would
never ever want to lose my digital photo files. I'm curious too, to know how
others feel about this. How many care and how many don't? It's very
interesting.

I think about this stuff all the time — fabulous discussion!

A couple of extra tech tips that came to mind:

1) Just as a reminder, if you delete from an external hard drive, it doesn't go into any Trash or Recycle Bin for later recovery… so its important to be careful.

2.) Time Machine back up on an EHD requires that the EHD be Mac-formatted (or partitioned). I like to make sure that I can use my photos and digital supplies on both Mac and PC, so I choose not to use Time Machine.

3.) I've never used SuperDuper, but I do use File Synchronization. Their site doesn't look snazzy, but its an updated app with an 8 year history (http://nemesys.dyndns.org/FileSynchronization_E…). It just works.

love the show as usual! I dont know if you guys did it on purpose or not…but I really liked that this time when someone was going to speak they said “this is becky” or “I want to comment on what angie was saying” so I could get a better feel for who was saying what…sometimes I get lost…it's not a big deal but it was nice to be able to know who said what.
cant wait for next week's show!

I love the show and wanted to say that I really appreciate that each week I leave the podcast with (a) new thought/inspiration/information, etc. I don't find this with most scrapbooking sites, but here, there is a really varied group of people and ideas on the show and I always walk away thinking about something in a different way.

I am glad that there is usually some bit about computers/photos- I take a ton of photos (I have about 20K), so I always appreciate new information about cameras, storage, or just fun computer stuff.

Regarding the excessive photos and will you really look at them, etc- YES! I do go back through my gazillion photos and remember each moment! I am not of the delete, delete, delete mentality, although I am sure it is helpful for some. That being said, I am very organized with my photos- I have folders and sub folders and sub-sub folders. I can find any picture at any time.

My Grandma died a year and a half ago and I would give anything to have more of her pictures. Anything. Every single time I put a memory on a page, I think about how awesome it would have been to have her memories recorded this way. Or at all. So, I am all about keeping all the pictures.

I back up my pictures on an external hard drive and I am going to try Mozy.

Enjoy the podcast a lot.

Suggestion for a topic or two: scrapbooking for those who do like to do so chronologically; AND/OR scrapbooking for those who do not do it as as their craft or major creative outlet, but more specifically as a way to journal their own or their family's life. You may need to get a new guest or two, since most of those you have had do not seem to approach it quite that way.

Request: would it be possible to get your blog set up with a separate rss feed just for the podcast notes? (I know it is technologically possible.)

Just saw your last request about a dedicated rss feed. I'll note it and we'll see what Izzy says! :)

Not easy questions, so I had to think about them.

There's several approaches that I have in mind as I've listened to your podcasts:

one is that even as we approach themed scrapbooks, there is a chronological element that gets neglected, or not mentioned. Scrapping the changes in my life from ten years ago and today is fundamentally time-based. Scrapping the fact that in the year 2009, we did this, this and this, is fundamentally chronological. It's not so much that I would want to argue that we need to scrap chronologically, but that we need to understand the time basis of what we do. Even as I start to expand my focus into personality-driven pages, at the same time, even as I attempt a week in the life project, based on Ali's idea, it is very much based on that moment in time. (It strikes me as weird when I look at some pages online, that there is NO DATE on the page. WHY?)

two is that many people who start scrapping do start from that “I want to record things in time order” approach. If that is what they want to do, then what techniques make it possible?

in a sense, this is related to the alternate idea I mentioned, which is approaches to scrapbooking for whom this is NOT their major creative outlet. I am one of those people (my outlet is fiber, such as knitting, weaving, sewing, etc.), so how should someone who is not approaching scrapbooking in that way work toward their goals? For me the answer is simplicity and focus, but surely that isn't the ONLY answer. I'm going to try to write a bit more about that on my blog soon, so you might get a grasp of my process.

and a third idea is related to that journaling our life/historical focus. In a sense it has been almost assumed in much of the scrapping conversations I participate in, but I don't hear it as much in this Roundtable's discussion. But perhaps the archival quality of some of what you produce might be an interesting topic. Is it meant to last for a long time? if so, why or why not?

As for a who, I was hoping you might know some. I have been a deliberately limited scrapbooker, meaning I work within a confined focus and am not really familiar with the industry overall or its top names (partly that is because I simply do not read magazines). I've been learning new names through listening to your podcast, and am certainly getting some new ideas. But that means I have no one to suggest. Though I did notice that Becky from this particular podcast did seem to have that time-related, journaling focus. (Ironically I wrote the first comment before I listened to this episode.)

I'm struggling a little with expressing some of these ideas, I think, because I am getting a lot of value from what ya'll are doing. There are stories that I am figuring out that I want to express, and these topics are certainly giving me ideas and inspiration. But in a weird way, because for so many of you, this is your craft and your career, I think it influences your assumptions in ways you may not be aware of. You are all real-life scrapbookers, but are you really average scrapbookers? When I think of the women I see at the monthly crop I go to, the answer is pretty much no. But that's a confined group, so I don't know how fair a comparison it is. However, it does make me wonder.

Anyway, there's some answers to your question. Hope it gives you some ideas.

Noell: I finally got some time to listen to this episode and was thrilled to find out that my question was featured. Thanks so much for all the feedback. It was really helpful and I have been taking steps. They are slow but I think I've worked out a system that will work for me. *crossing my figners* I've backed up all my photos and scrapbooking stuff to my WD external hard drive (it runs a back up program each time I plug it in to my laptop. Unfortunately I run on Tiger so my mac doesn't have Time Machine though it sounds really cool. Maybe in a few years when this one seems like it might die I can upgrade) temporarily have put my digital scrapbooking files that I've purchased from sights like desinger digitals on a 4gb thumb drive (just plug it in when I need to use those files). I even went through and deleted a bunch of old photos starting with the year 2003. My plan is to only have the current year and the past year worth of photos on my laptop as those are the one I most use for blog posts and scrapbooking at the moment. And I was just given permission to buy another WD 2TB hard drive for a second backup for peace of mind and will be placing that in my fire safe (with all my negatives and other important documents). It's been scary and hard but I am working at it and feeling pretty good. I even managed to free up some space. now have 13 gb of available space and still have more deleted to do. I also have thought about going through and deleted unused applications that came with my mac but that I have no idea what they are/do and haven't even touched or opened them in the 4 years i've owned my laptop. Like garageband (taking up 100mb worth of space) automator, omnioutliner and iWork, etc. Is this suggested? or no?

Anyway thanks for all the information it is helpful and I am making progress. I've also gone through and started deleting the “bad” or “dulpicate” photos I have. Even getting picky before I download to my computer.

Rachel

I love learning about everyone's process of scrapbooking. In magazines, the focus is always on products or techniques and though those are thrilling and fun I do not think they are the heart of scrapbooking. What stesses scrapbookers the most is trying to find a process that works for them, once you become empassioned about capturing memories through scrapbooking it becomes quiete an undertaking, there is so many photos, so many stories, and so many ideas that it can easily become overwhelming. I think alot of scrapper stick to chronologically because they do not know how else to approach it. This is why I love hearing everyone's in-depth view of their process (as opposed to the short interview type answers that can still leave you wondering how they really do it), it gives us a direction to move in or something to try. I have always been a non-chronological scrapper but did find it a bit difficult in there being such big chunks of time that are not represented at all in my scrapbooks because there was no rhyme or reason to what I scrapbooked. I also found myself scrapbooking less, because although the stress of not being caught-up was not a big issue for me, being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of memories I wanted to record with no system to help me decide which one left me feeling drained before I started. The beginning of 2010, I created a system that helps combine some of the benifits of chronological scrapbooking with inspirational scrapbooking. It has reenlivened my passion. I would love to share it if you were interested. I am sure it is not a totally new way of doing it, but maybe a slightly different version than how others might. I am thinking maybe that is what bibliotecaria was wanting, how people scrap with some sense of chronological timeline in mind.

Hi, Cynthia. I have no idea where it is. You could get on her blog and ask
her. It is hard to connect with her via email b/c she gets inundated but I
wonder if you could get her attention by leaving a comment on her blog and
asking her about it? I will try to DM her on twitter.

I’m still catching up on shows, and I just listened to this one. I totally agree that it’s a freeing experience to delete photos! We take SO MANY photos with digital cameras just because we can. I also understand what an emotional connection we can have with each and every photo we take. Here’s my solution:

I use the software Memory Manager to manage all my photos (including journaling along with photos and actual photo editing), and one of the great features allows me to rate each photo. For similar photos, I choose just one or two to give 5 stars to (or 3 or 4 stars if they’re not 5-star-worthy), and then I give the others 0, 1, or 2 stars based on how good they are and how unique they are. After a week or so, I filter my photos so I can just see the 0-star photos, and I only keep the ones I love. Usually I find that I delete all of these. (This is similar to the idea of creating a “to delete” folder). I often find that I can usually delete most of the 1-star photos and many of the 2-star photos after a while.

I usually only print or digitally scrapbook my 5- and 4-star photos, and I’ll throw in an occasional 3-star photo if I don’t have any better photos for that subject.

I do also highly recommend keeping backups on external hard drives in addition to or instead of CDs. I’ve had a computer crash recently, and because I used Memory Manager to back up my photo library external to the computer hard drive, it was easy to restore my photos (even though there were literally thousands of them). It made the crash much less tragic than it would have been otherwise!

Stefani