I have been asking many moms this week about photo storage and sharing. I have used Google for so long! I think I have photos uploaded as early as 2002 and scanned in many more. I will admit I have a photo problem! I used to be the person who always carried a camera in my purse and would document the whole event like I was going to go home and make a book. Haha! Since then I’ve been better and worse. Now, I feel like I have to edit photos so I don’t take them as often but when I do, I can take 200 at one soccer game on my big camera! I forgot to mention I also have a side photography business I run, mostly holiday, spring bluebonnets, and here and there photos. Two Hearts Photography by Celeste, check it out. I love it but my photo storage/organization has gotten out of hand. I have been doing a lot of research to find the perfect fit for everyday pics.
All this started because I have always shared photos from each season with the parents from the soccer team. I try to take fun photos of all the kids doing their thing. I didn’t want to use the space on my photography site but I was having trouble making a sharable album from Google. Another con on the Google side is that they limit the size you can upload free unless you buy space for large files. I have 26,000 photos on my phone alone, haha.
For a long time, I knew where to go to find old photos. Before Google would auto upload, I would take all the photos from the past 3 months and make a folder. Why 3 months because only 500 photos would fit in a folder. When I had a new baby, I took lots of photos! Then Google added auto up-loader and I felt I could be at ease knowing my photos were securely updated as long as I opened it occasionally.
For my larger DSLR photos I have tried a few different sites. Flikr and now Pixieset. I liked Flikr for personal and business but I would constantly hear people could not figure out how to download photos. Pixieset is easy and has been the answer for the business side! BUT, for your family photos you do not need to pay for a photography site. I have found my answer, Amazon Photos. You can upload full size photos with your prime membership! You can also auto upload- I open Amazon Photos on my phone and let it upload then it will add anything new automatically. This will take me some time to get my personal photos moved over but I have been able to share photos with the team easily creating an album and uploading full size images from my computer. I can add to the shared album weekly and as long as they have the link, they can look at the updated album. They can share the link or download any photos they want. Another fun thing about Amazon Photos is we have Firesticks on the TVs so the screensaver scrolls through your photos if you have it set that way. I’m sure at some point Amazon will change like everything else out there but for now you have unlimited space and full-size uploads that is a huge win for me! At night I set my phone to upload before I go to bed and it dims the screen as it uploads my phone pics. I need to set the auto uploader on my computer as well to backup all those.
I hope this helps all of you looking for a photo storage solution! I know there are mamas just like me, keep all those precious memories safe! Oh, one last important feature is that I can set facial recognition so I can search a person, date, thing, or location. I use this feature a lot! I can search for soccer, or a specific location or date or year if I’m not sure. I will still use Google as well since it is free but I know those are smaller size and for some reason I can only upload my phone pictures.
