Observations from the top of Photo Mountain

Photo by Pascal Habermann on Unsplash.

Every parent has that moment, or will, when they notice that their kid has become an adult. You were so wrapped up in the journey that you missed the arrival.

A few weeks ago I returned from the 2023 Photo Managers Conference in Orlando and felt smacked by the same discovery.

Surrounded for days by colleagues who gather, organize, scan, edit, print, cull, research, and otherwise live and breath photos, I came away realizing that we had become a real Thing.

Courted by software developers, interviewed by journalists, and sought by people worldwide, Photo Management has come of age.

Photo by Kristyna Squared.One on Unsplash.

Ten years ago, when I joined the group, it was just plain vanilla photo organizing. An extension of home organizing. Or genealogy. Or scrapbooking. Or vacation albums. It was the epilogue to some other task. Once the shoeboxes had been emptied and the ‘keepers’ tucked safely in an album, the photo organizing was done.

Then the iPhone turned everyone into a photographer and pictures became our second language. Print photos that used to end up in an album needed to be digitized and tagged and added to the ever-growing digital photo collection housed on each phone, computer, tablet, and online gallery. Not just for convenience but for preservation itself. So on top of becoming the daily chroniclers of our lives, we became historians and archivists too. Tasked with both the creation and the custody of our memories in ways that our parents never did.

In the process, photo managers have become the experts. The explorers and innovators of contemporary photo usage, going where no one had really gone before. Photo Managers are the direct connection between real world imaging experience and the technology that supports it.

Photo by author.

Where we once had to adapt the technology to the task, we now get to help shape it. As our clients’ photo collections grow and their expectations change, we can help guide the developers to deliver even better photo experiences for everyone.

Exciting stuff.

And in exchange, while we share our experience of what’s expected by everyday photo consumers, the developers share their vision of what’s possible. Where technology is taking us.

Which is equally exciting.

So standing at the center of it all, what does photography look like in 2023?

First, there is no One Size Fits All solution to the task of managing photos. If one method works for you, that’s the right one. If you struggle with it, it’s not. We are long past the era of double prints and scrapbook albums. We view and share photos and videos in so many different ways that the entire concept of “best” practices has to be modified for each type of experience.

Next, target numbers are meaningless. Photos are a measure of our engagement with the world around us and bookmarks for our most cherished memories. It’s different for everyone. Whether you have 5000, 50,000 or 500,000 photos it’s all good.

Folder organizing is less and less relevant. Like an old-fashioned ring tone on your iPhone, folder organizing has the comfort of familiarity, but none of the features we love for enjoying our photos. Finding photo management software that organizes, displays, and shares your images in an easy way is essential for your photo enjoyment and commitment to the task.

One reason for that is that AI and Machine Learning are more and more a part of photo management. Whether it’s to intelligently retouch photos, identify objects and places, create curated stories, delete bad shots, or apply subject tags, advanced technology is making it possible to manage larger collections without the overwhelm. Paired with the right photo software, your photo experience can blossom and go from overwhelmed to overjoyed.

And the greatest takeaway of all is the photo management business itself. Certified professionals who understand and serve the everyday photo community, help keep family histories alive, and can show people how to enjoy their priceless memories in the most satisfying up-to-date ways possible.

It's a real thing.

If you are overwhelmed/confused/uncertain about your photo collection and want some helpful, professional advice, please reach out to me or go to ThePhotoManagers.com for resources and advice.