Quarantine may be a little hard on us, but if you look on the brighter side, it’s also one of the best times to bond with your family (even on a video call) over mundane yet fun tasks like photo organising. Family members are your best resource when it comes to sorting and figuring out what’s worth keeping and what isn’t, and quarantine is a natural time for everyone to finally do things they have been avoiding to do since ages. And also an opportunity to reminisce over old memories with a glass of wine.
Getting started with the three pile method
If you’re that responsible photo keeper sibling, who even has all the best corporate headshots of the entire family, you then need to get ready for the hard work – because there is a lot to choose from.
I’d recommend dividing your photos into the “yes” and “no,” and “maybe” piles. The best way to do this is to make an initial first pass through your entire collection because the ones that are NOT likely to be discarded and the ones you won’t need at all are naturally going to stand out right away. Here’s a fairly helpful criterion to sort your piles:
YES
- Wedding albums
- High School pictures
- Professional portraits
- Events
- Heartfelt photos that trigger an important memory
NO
- Blur photos
- Bad angled landscape photos
- Cut off limbs
- Unclear photos
- Over or underexposed ones
MAYBE
- Any photo you don’t like, but can’t even throw away would like to keep
- Multiple photos from a single event that needs to be narrowed down
- Photos of unknown people and distant acquaintances
- Photos that are quite similar, but still different
There are multiple reasons you might put a photo into the “yes” pile over the “maybe” or “no” piles, and the hardest pile to sort through after getting done with your first pass. That’s where FaceTime comes into the picture.
A low-budget, maximum-fun family trip to nostalgia lands via FaceTime or Zoom
The last thing you want to happen after putting so much time into organising and consolidating your old family photos is for your big brother to find a stash of memorable (read embarrassing) pictures of your childhood that he kept hidden. This type of exciting throwback could wash off the quarantine blues to some extent. So, FaceTime your fam, ask them to bring some snack and cherish older times together.
Don’t forget to capture this Quarantine reunion
This activity can go on for about half a day, but don’t you dare to forget capturing this moment. It could be the perfect throwback photo to remind yourself of this monstrous COVID-19 and how your 2020 family/siblings reunion was in the days of quarantine. You sure cannot take artist headshots of every dramatic family member, but a screenshot of them on the screen with you would do the job. Or you could set up your camera and pose with the family on screen.