If you’re anything like me, you probably have somewhere between five and ten thousand photos on your phone. Most of them you rarely look at, with the exception of those rare moments when your flight is delayed or the doctor is taking too long and you’ve got the time to flip through, endlessly.
The good shots get lost in a sea of the random photos we accumulate daily: the very first photos of your newborn baby are buried under photos of receipts, countless, mostly blurry, shots of your child’s dance recital, and over 50 different angles of that awesome sunset. SIGH. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a tight selection of the best ones? That’s exactly what photo curation is all about.
Curation 101
It seems that the « KonMari method » is everywhere these days, but for good reason. The success of Marie Kondo’s TV show is proof that only keeping the things that speak to your heart makes you feel lighter, more focused and eventually happier.
I believe that the KonMari Method applies just as well to photography as it does to clothes and kitchen utensils. As a matter of fact, it is exactly what photo curation, and, naturally, Mootsh are all about: letting go of the absurd amount of images in your digital archive and only keeping the ones that truly spark joy.
“Keeping only the things that speak to your heart makes you feel lighter, more focused and eventually happier.”
Our Ultimate Curation Tips
Tip #1
The most important tip, and the principle on which Mootsh was founded: curation is a gradual process. Work through the photos on your phone a little bit at a time, perhaps at the end of the week or after each occasion. Don’t overwhelm yourself but also don’t let things pile up anymore than they already have. You’ve got this.
Tip #2
Make use of the « Favorites » option on your phone. If you have an iPhone, click the little heart below each photo, and it will tag your photo as a favorite and they’ll be placed in your favorites album. For Androids, simply click the star above your photo when viewing it in full screen.
Tip #3
Create monthly albums. You’re not alone if you don’t know how to do this but it’s really quite simple, trust me! On an iPhone*, navigate to the « Albums » section in your photos app. Then, click the « + » symbol in the top left hand corner. You will then be prompted to create a new album and to choose a title for it. Once created, you can go through your photos and add them to the album. We’d recommend creating an album for each month of the year – extremely useful for your Mootsh membership!
Tip #4
This tip is my favorite – print some of your favorite photos each month! To me, this is the ultimate in curation. The most pleasing one, the one that gives life to my memories in the deepest manner, creating tangible traces of my most cherished moments.
It’s nice to not only print them, but to do something neat with them. Whether that’s putting them in an album or frames or sending to my family abroad – there’s no greater thrill than the print.
Tip #5
As Marie Kondo advises, curation also implies organization. Print your photos but do something neat with them. Make sense of them. Whatever you do will work.
We’ll have some ideas and inspiration for you on what to do with your photos coming up soon! Stay tuned..
*Android users, click here for detailed steps on creating an album!