Organizing APS Cartridges from Digital Photo Files

OOPS!  It's been longer than I thought since I posted on this blog!  Sorry about that!  Today I'll catch you up on what I've been up do since my last post.

I did take my camera to that last scrapbook crop, but I got so busy working on organizing digital copies of my photos that I didn't take even one picture!  I have close to 200 or more APS cartridges that I have been taking to a photo shop to be scanned and placed on CD.  I am taking them in groups of 5-7 cartridges at a time in order to organize the pictures that I already have developed.  When I get the cds back, I load the images into my Creative Memories Memory Manager program.

That sounds pretty simple, except that (being the perfectionist that I am) I want the names of each individual picture to reflect the cartridge number.  The cartridges have either 15 or 25 pictures on each.  Also, sometimes APS rolls are numbered from the back of the roll forward which makes the numbers on each picture backwards from the actual order they were taken.  To get the images in the correct order, I go through my old planners and try to get an idea about the sequence of events from the notes I've taken.

Before I add the roll to my Memory Manager, I upload the pics from each roll to a file that I have labeled with the cartridge number and approximate date.  I use the year, month, day, and then the cartridge number.  So, let's say the cartridge number is 456-432. The file name would look something like this:  2000, 07, 09, 456-432.  That way the files will stay in order in date sequence because they are numbered.  Sometimes I add in the event between the date and cartridge number.  Like this:  2000, 07, 09, Wedding Day, 456-432.  After the file is ready I open the cd, copy the pictures from that roll then paste them (or move them) into the folder I just made.

Next I renumber each image.  I would number the image that comes first in sequence this way:  456-432_01.   The last in sequence would be 456-432_25.  If the order on the cartridge is not correct, sometimes I add a comma and the number from the roll:  456-432_01, Neg. 25.

I do something very similar with negatives from traditional film rolls.  I generally use the number from the sticker that is usually on the first negative strip.  Those numbers are usually 4-digit numbers like:  4567.  For those I would add two zeros at the end and place a hyphen in the middle like this:  456-700.

After I upload the pictures to Memory Manager, I change the dates on each image and try to get reasonably close to a specific date.  If I am not sure of the exact date, I either make an educated guess, or I just put the month and year.

As you can see it can take several minutes just to get through one roll of images.  I have the year 2000 finished for the most part.  I still have several rolls to do for 2001.  I also try to scrapbook some of the pictures as I go.  Right now I am in the process of scrapping a 6 X 6 album of pictures of our dogs.  Again, I have 2000 pretty much finished and continue to work on 2001.   My plan is to have the rolls from 2000-2002 finished before Christmas.

I am making use of monthly crops at the store where I work and at my church as well as two-day crops every quarter that my Creative Memories consultant holds during the year.  Once in awhile I take a few days off from my home-based business and work on my photo organizing on the weekends at home, too.

My next project for you guys will be to get some pics of my 6 X 6 layouts on the blog.  I am still trying to figure out how to get the pics uploaded right into the posts instead of in the side bar, so be patient with me.

Have a great day, and Happy Scrapbooking!