As of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the state of Michigan is under a shelter-in-place order from Governor Gretchen Whitmer for the next three weeks. Whether you’re a photographer or not, here are 5 photo related things to do during the COVID-19 quarantine.

1 – ORGANIZE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS & VIDEOS

Whether you’re a professional or you just enjoy taking photos on your phone, chances are you’ve likely run out of storage space on your phone or computer. Now is a perfect time to cull your images – here are some steps to help you with the culling process –

 1) — Remove duplicates photographs

 2) — Only keep your best photos. It’s okay to be ruthless! Delete technically incorrect images. Images that are blurry, dark or just plain bad can go. You’ll never use those photos of yourself blinking or eating food, we promise.

 3) — Discard unwanted screenshots, memes, videos and downloaded images.

For computer users and professionals, our favorite culling tool is a program called Photo Mechanic.

2 – BACKUP YOUR IMAGES

Now that you’ve organized your photos, it’s time to back them up.

The best practice to follow is the 3-2-1 rule.

 3) — Keep three copies of your data

 2) — Store the copies on at least two different kinds of media

 1) — Keep one copy offsite

Essentially, you want a copy on your phone/computer, a copy online and a copy on an external hard drive. Ideally, you want to keep the external hard drive offsite too, but we use fireproof safe.

Side note – the 3-2-1 rule is a minimum. Hard drives fail, and we strongly recommend keeping two identical drives with your data, especially if you’re professional. We also understand backups can be costly, but hard drive recovery is much more expensive.

Western Digital Hard Drives We Like

3 – SERVICE YOUR EQUIPMENT

We seriously can’t think of a better time send in your photography gear to have it cleaned and serviced.

 PROFESSIONALS – we recommend becoming a Canon Professional Services Member. CPS offers discounts on servicing and repairs to members. As Platinum Members, our savings on service and repairs is almost always more than the cost of our membership

 NON-PROFESSIONALS – Midwest Camera is a local Michigan company that is an authorized service and repair center for almost every camera manufacturer. 

4 – CREATE AN ALBUM

Now that your gear is being serviced and your photos are all backed up, it’s time to make some albums! Whether it’s your wedding album, a family vacation or just a recap of 2019, it’s time to print your photos to carry on your legacy.

We too are working on creating our own personal albums. We’ve recently switched photo hosting companies because they offer a do-it-yourself album building service paired with their printing services!

We are so excited to offer our couples and clients the opportunity to layout and build their own albums. We are transferring weddings from 2019 and 2020, but if you want us to load your wedding or engagement session, send us an email and we’ll gladly do so.

5 – EMBRACE THE DOWNTIME

Okay, not photo related, but it’s also okay to embrace this time.

It’s been a stressful and scary couple of for many of us. Our health, our jobs, our savings, our homes, etc… It’s okay to take this time and do nothing.

Many of us spend our lives in overdrive. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel guilty for taking the time you need, especially this time right now.