Photo Process

I've been thinking a lot about my process for organizing and scrapping my photos lately. Maybe it's my New Year's resolution to redo my organizational system for my digital photos or the current issue of CK all about organization, but I drew up a plan tonight of my process. I'm sharing it with you in case you want some of the ideas, and also so I have a place to refer to it as I work. I'll try and keep this brief; here goes:

1. Download photos from camera to computer and organize them by date and topic {i.e. Feb 14-Eating Chocolate} and file into appropriate year folder.
2. Back up new photos to external hard drive (very important!! and not something I have been good about doing, but can you imagine?)
3. While going through new photos, jot down notes/journaling into sketch book and draw sketch to go with photos. Use magazines or the internet for inspiration. Put as much detail regarding photos sizes, color schemes, materials, etc. as possible.
4. Print photos in appropriate sizes for scrapbook pages.
5. Send other photos you love to printer in sizes desired (another thing I'm not good at doing, but who needs to spend hundreds on works of art for the walls, when some gorgeous photographs of people you love enlarged, matted, and framed would be way better?)

So there it is, the system I am starting to use to keep a handle on my photos and scrapbook more pages. The sketch book is key and the more detail the better, so that when you sit down to create a page all the thinking is already done for you.

How do you keep up with your photos, or what advice do you have for making use of your creative time?