Photo Entropy
In all relationships, the individuals bring their own strengths and weaknesses to the party. Sometimes they are both sides of the same coin. I’ve long known that my mind works better when learning things visually. I know, for instance, that I have a hard time remembering people’s names without seeing them written down. Back in the days of business cards I could place them on the table and refer to them during the meeting to help cement the new names in my head. Now I type a contact entry into my phone. I don’t want somebody sending me their contact card because it doesn’t have the same sticking power as thumb typing their name letter by letter.
Modern smart phones have been a Godsend to folks like me. I don’t ever have to write anything down anymore. I just whip out my phone and snap a photo. Where did I park my car? I have a photo of the closest marker. What is the WIFI login? I have a photo of the hand written note. I even take screen shots of things on my phone I want to remember. I use this technique in all aspects of my life. It’s fantastic. The date is stamped in every photo as well as the GPS location. I can go back months later and figure out what was happening at the time and jog my memory for context and details.
The problem with that is bloat. Just like how your hanging clothes always expand to fill your closet, my photo library expands to fill my phone. Almost daily. I bet I take 30-40 photos a day. Most are for a specific purpose and I pull them off and store them in folders on my computer, sending out emails with screen shots to drive my point home visually. Many get left on my phone out of neglect because I took them on a whim, thinking that a photo of that exact thing may come in handy later. Eventually, my photo management program is jam packed with everything from daily life to photos of beer to those gorgeous DSLR shots of the latest trip with Bella that I want to edit and put on JustACarryOn.
My phone is full and so is my computer. Along came Google with a solution especially for me. It’s simply called Photos and it is awesome. All it requires is a Google account and the app on my phone. The photos upload in the background whenever I have access to WIFI. The storage is unlimited as long as I don’t try to save 4k videos. Once they’re uploaded, Google’s assistant will go through and stitch things together to make cool panoramas or GIFs I can either save or ignore.
Now I can cull through my photos on my laptop and my phone and delete what I know is just taking space, content in the knowledge that I’m not losing anything important. I’m always prepared to take another shot.
~Freddy
