4 Steps to get your horsey photos off your phone and into your house/tack room

Cameras on cell phones have revolutionized the way we take photos. Once upon a time, we were limited to 36 shots on our film cameras but now we can store thousands of photos on our phones. Unfortunately, countless stellar photos are left unseen on our phones. Sure, you might occasionally show a friend one of these photos on your phone or post one on your social media but I guarantee that you have a select few special photos that deserve a place hanging on the wall in your house.

The 2018 horse show season has come to an end for most riders, so now is the perfect time to sort through your phone’s photo gallery. There is no sense in spending hundreds on professional photos when you probably have some winners stored on your phone right now. As a bonus, sorting through your phone’s photo gallery will free up some serious storage space, which you will need to take more horse photos (obviously). Remember, phones are delicate and easy to lose and you wouldn’t want all your photos to die with your phone. Enjoy a fun ride down memory lane while you take on the task of cleaning and sorting through your digital photos…

1) Don’t be a photo hoarder. You don’t need thousands of photos. I know deleting photos can be tough for many people but it will be worth it in the end. If you scroll through your camera roll, you’ll find duplicate pictures, random screenshots, and photos of super blurry horses. Just delete these pictures. They only clutter your phone and make it harder to find the photos you love. You want your camera roll to show your story, not be a place for a bunch of garbage photos to gather.

2) Make time to regularly delete the photos you don’t care for. Deleting photos can take a surprising amount of time, especially if you let it get out of hand. Think about it, if you take 10 photos a day that will end up being over 3,500 photos a year! There isn’t a house and/or barn large enough to hang that many pictures in. Set aside a certain time during the day or week to go through and delete photos so you stay on top of things. Be picky about what photos you keep. Remember, you don’t need twenty photos of you holding your horse with the same ribbon. Just pick your favourite photo from every mini photo shoot you take. If the photo doesn’t make you super happy when you look at it, then say goodbye to it.
 

 
3) Organize your photos. Ideally, you will need a computer for this task. Once you have narrowed down your photos to your very favourites, it is time to start organizing them. Upload them to your computer and then sort them into albums that make sense to you. Depending on how many photos you have, you might just do this by year or month. But if you take a lot of photos you might want to sort them by horse or by show or other subject matter. Regardless of what sorting criteria you come up with, just make sure you understand your logic so you can easily find the photos. It is wise to then upload all your photos onto a cloud storage service or onto an external hard drive because technology can seriously let you down sometimes and losing all of your photos would be devastating.

4) Display the photos off of your phone. Now it’s time to move your photos from the digital world into the REAL world and put them on proper display. Sending physical photos to your owners and other supporters is also a great way to show your appreciation. There are numerous affordable options for displaying your photos including:

i) Photo books. There are numerous companies that make creating your own photo books a breeze.

• Chatbooks start as low as $8.00,
• Mixbook has themed options starting at $15.99, or
• Picaboo, which starts at $19.99.

ii) Custom framing direct from your phone. Hanging up framed photos will never go out of style. There is something heartwarming about walking into your house and seeing beautiful pictures of your horses hanging on the walls. Framing pictures used to be expensive and time-consuming but now you can send photos to be framed directly from your phone. Check out:

• Framebridge, and
• Pictli

iii) Printing your own photos. There are many photo printer options available. These printers are small and you can use Bluetooth to print photos directly from your phone! Here are two options that you can buy and have your own printer conveniently at home:

No more excuses now. Time to get your precious photos off of your phone and on display for your houseguests and yourself to admire and reminisce over.