I had to share this with you because it is neato! Or I’m a photo geek. Either way.
I was tidying up my photos in SmugMug, and I noticed I could get a running total of my photos by year! What’s a geek to do? Make a graph!
The first thing I noticed was the spike in the last couple of years. We took our first international vacation in 2010, that explains half of it. The other half of it I started taking more everyday pictures around that time. I used to take very few.
The result of both? A photo explosion. This is after I make a general pass and delete around half right after I take them.
This leads me to the conclusion that it will take me longer to scrapbook each year as the years go on. What will happen to the totals when I have kids??
Earlier in the graph: I started using digital in 2004 and I got married in 2006, which explains that upward trajectory. I have no idea why 2007 was so low. Post-wedding craft malaise? I can’t wait to open my box of keepsakes from that year and really see what we were up to!
The number for each year will pare down when I get to scrapbooking them. I cut the number of pictures I keep permanently once I’ve scrapbooked them and understand what I consider important.
Have you taken this birds-eye view of your photo collection before? Notice any patterns?
I am so glad I am not the only one who keeps tabs on the numbers!!
I atribute the spike in photos to several things. 1) Digital. We know we can take multiple pics of something without the cost of developing!! We see the pics on a computer screen adn can pick the best detailed, etc and delete the rest. 2) As our world has changed, events like 9/11, Natural Disasters and other Life-Changing Events, both personal and in our country. have made ScrapBookers more aware than ever of the importance of the everyday. We take a pictue of the glass of wine we regularly share with a BFF. The Hubby’s Friday Night bar-B-Que ritual. Mom’s famous Christmas cookies … And so the ScrapBooks become bigger, more detailed. Not just birthday, anniversary and Christmas pictures.
As for the number of photos … I use Creative Memories’ Memory Manager Software and it has the number of pictures in the Vault, in a Folder, in a Sub-Folder. As you change views, it tells you how many is in each
I am like you and wonder what happens as I get more and more behind because there are more and more pictures?? We shall see! Not really on my radar right now. Just going with the flow. Once they are scrapped, I put them on my EHD, deleting as I review each event/folder. Though I do NOT have as many as you!!
There are almost 20,000 photos on my laptop. I average 2000 a year. 2011 was a big year with 2 family weddings – giving me just over 3000 pics that year. That does include all the professional photos each had because I did their scrapbooks for them!! I have also kept track and counted from past pages and albums. I tend to scrap about 60% of what I keep from each event. Also, like you, I delete some when I first load all the new pics in so who knows what I really took.
It’s a lot pf pictures. But having the memories is worth the work!! Working on my annual 2011 album right now. Almost 2000 pics left after removing all the wedding photos! Happy Scrapping …
Yay, I’m not the only one! It’s interesting to hear what affected your photo taking. My story is a bit different, but there is still a spike very much attributed to everyday photo taking.
This is so cool! I love that you were able to get a graph of your photos. I have to see if I can do something like this, I’d love it see if my photo taking increased when I moved to Chicago (I think it did – a lot!)
I got the data from SmugMug and made the graph myself