I have always been the person in the family who takes the photos and treasured the photos of generations past. As a professional photographer, the collection only grew with time and I know the importance of having physical, tangible photographs.

I am not someone who likes "stuff" but in my 50 years of exisitance, my photo albums and boxes of random prints have always had a safe spot in my home. Thankfully I have also had the foresight to store and back up my digital files over the past 20ish years.

Like most of us, I had thousands of digital photos locked away on hard drives and sitting on my computer. Like some of you, I have also lost loved ones and know the importance one singular image can be. But how do you even know where it is?

Welcome to my personal project for the last month or so.

Collecting, printing and organizing ALL of my photos, from the 1970s all the way to last week.

Pulling 27+ photo albums out of the storage drawers under the bed, putting them in a pile and realizing this would be completely overwhelming for any family member to take over or even want to tackle. Because lets face it, that is what my kids would have to deal with one day. The last thing I want is for all of these to just disappear.

It also gave me a reason to go through them all. Relive so many memories. Some great, some sad. I saw faces I haven't seen for years. I packed up piles of photos for other people who I knew should have them. And every single person had the same reaction. Gratitude.

Sorting all of these by year also showed me I had years worth of gaps of zero prints. Years that passed that where locked away in the digital world that no one else would be able to find. That had to change.

So here is my families memories in four bins. I have one more coming since there is one more print order on its way and I know I need to continue to capture and archive as I always have.

Print your photos.

- Sunny

For anyone asking, just do a quick google search for 4x6 photo storage (or any size) and there are so many options like this. I am not here to sell anyone on anything. Find your method that works for you.