25,295 and counting

I am finishing up the winter break here and I noticed that my digital photo collection has now passed the nearly useless metric of 25,000 images.

25,000 photo is plenty of photos. About 70Gb, actually. Now those photos span the years 1999-2010 in quantity, so it is literally more than a decade of photos, but that also includes scanned photos from way way before, even into the very late 19th century. As a reference, my 2010 folder now stands at 12Gb, my 1999 folder is at 260Mb, my 2000 folder is at 510Mb, and so on. A testament to the ever increasing megapixel count and my comfort with taking more and more shots.

I started with a  3Mp Kodak and then moved to 7Mp Nikon. Now we have a Nikon D60, a variety of smartphone cameras (including the Microsoft KIN, which always took great photos), and a Nikon CoolPix s7c, plus a Flip. somewhere. Oh how simple it was back then! . . .?

This is also the time of year I make the annual photo collage. I find the top ten or so, iterate with my spouse for a bit, and then “hand assemble” the master image. I say “hand assemble” in quotes since of course I am using a PC. But I go through what is still a pretty Rube Goldberg process for doing so. If anyone has a better way, please let me know!

1. First, I tag the candidates in Windows Live Photo Gallery with the “Holiday 2010 tag.”
2. We whittle down the candidates and I make copies of the winners to put into a separate folder (copies!).
3. I open them up and change each to black and white.
4. I then use an old version, v7, of JASC’s Paint Shop Pro (the new versions do not have this feature – Corel what did you do?!?) and I select “print multiple images”
5. I then drag and drop the ten images onto a template and adjust, overlap as necessary.
6. I then “print” the file to a JPG driver, no compression, using PDFCreator.

I take the master image, upload it to Costco, and print a bunch of cards, or 4x6s to put into cards, etc.

Minor hiccup this year is that I think the image from Costco came out a bit dark. I noticed in their checkout that they have an “Auto Correct” feature turned on by default. It doesn’t say what it does, but I am having screen to printer matching issues. I just lightened the shadows of the master image and re-submitted with and without “Auto Correct” to go see the difference. Ideally I would have their ICC printer profile, or know what color space they are assuming, but I can already see the deer in the headlights look of the clerk on the topic.

What will the next ten years of photos bring? Likely way more than 70Gb, that’s for sure. Although with an external 2TB drive costing less than $200, I think I am good for storage for a while. Hope all smartphones will finally take good pictures, good in low light, image stabilization; D-SLRs will just get higher and higher quality as well, and smarter, and more connected (GPS and WiFi, please).

It’s a human thing, to capture and share. Have a great 2011.

Comments

[AlbertJana26]

Don't have a lot of money to buy a car? Worry not, just because that's real to receive the credit loans to resolve such kind of problems. Therefore get a financial loan to buy everything you want.

[Xbox 360 Wireless Controller]

"As a reference, my 2010 folder now stands at 12Gb, my 1999 folder is at 260Mb, my 2000 folder is at 510Mb, and so on. " as long as times go by, the folder is keeep moving, too.

[Ljrain]

Excellent post, I have 29,828 items on my flickr account now and also have it backed up to a external 3 TB drive. My situation is just about the same as yours, I love the idea of an annual photo collage. I am going start doing that also.
Thanks

[Rick]

Do you use any type of backup software? People never think about it until after the barn door closes, i.e. some type of hardware disaster hits.

[Nike Free Sko]

April 2007, "Nike" i Shanghai igjen saksøke Adidas og Zheng Zhi, for å stoppe overtredelsen og erstatning for økonomiske tap på 8 millioner yuan.