Getting Ready for LOAD2015 [aka Layout a Day Feb. 2015]

This will be my 11^th LOAD in the past four years – Incredible.

At the beginning, I did very little to prepare.  I thought as a digi scrapper, what is there to prepare?  Over the years, I’ve learned that I was wrong.  The past several LOADs I’ve taken some time to get ready.  Mainly, I’ve spent my preparation time organizing my photos in Panstoria Historian.  This has made so much of a difference that since I’ve been doing this pre-work, I’ve been able to complete the challenge and actually finish at least one layout each day.

A year ago, I did a post with some details on how I organize my pictures in Panstoria Historian.  My process remains mostly the same so here’s a summary and workflow of my process.

1. Import one set of pictures at time. I do this by event, or place or do all my mobile pictures in batches.  I use Dropbox  to sync my [Android] phone and iPad into one place.  I then pull them off Dropbox into Historian.   TIP: Ensure that you avoid importing duplicates. Find a video for this tip here.
2. If working on an event, I rename the photos of the event (or place). If they’re my camera photos I move to the next step.  TIP: Select all [Ctrl-A] and rename them all at once.
3. Tag photos. This step takes me a while as I tag for the event, place and people.  I find this worthwhile as I’m often trying to find specific pictures long after they were taken and it’s so much faster with my tags.
4. Star Rate. This step also takes some time but again, it’s very worthwhile to me – especially for LOAD.  That way I can focus on scrapping just the best images and I’d already decided which ones are best.  It makes my daily layouts happen much, much faster.  TIP: I use five stars for the most awesome pictures, four stars for those that must go on a layout and three stars to use as extras that are worthy to be on a layout.
5. Close Historian so the Metadata can be recorded. If I do too many pictures at once, the closing of the application can take a long time.  TIP: Here’s a video I did about working with metadata in Historian.

Today, when working with my pictures from a long weekend in San Diego [577 pics] these five steps took me just less than an hour.

When you’re getting ready for a scrapbooking weekend or a challenge like LOAD, what do you do to prepare?

For more tips, see the following bloggers who are also participating in LOAD starting February 1^st.

Nicole Gray http://nicolesscrapbook.blogspot.com/2015/01/load-215-blog-hop.html
Alice Boll http://scrapbookwonderland.com/load215-tips
Lisa Hausmann http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/2015/01/load215-blog-hop.html
Wendy Elliott Aebi http://aebidabbadoo.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love.html
Connie Ochoa Hanks http://wp.me/p33sLZ-cSG
Kristie Sloan http://kristiesloan.com/scrapbook-page-a-day-prepping-for-load215/
Kelli Panique http://scrapbookgirl71.com/load215-blog-hop
Lain Chroust Ehmann http://www.layoutaday.com/a-layout-a-day-heres-how/
Christy Strickler http://myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/2015/01/load-215-blog-hop.html
Lynnette Nagle http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/2015/01/pre-load-blog-hop.html
Danielle Leonetti http://scrapperonthestreet.com/2015/01/lets-get-ready-for-load215
Danielle Hunter http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/2015/01/load215-blog-hop.html
Leslie Smith http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/2015/01/012715-load215-blog-hop.html
Heather Dubarry http://noexcusescrapbooking.com/if-id-known-then-an-ode-to-load/
Melissa Pearson http://melissakaythehappyscrapper.blogspot.com/2015/01/lessons-from-load.html?m=1
Valerie Lindgren Smith http://fromvaleriesheart.blogspot.com/2015/01/load215-tips-for-working-girland-we-are.html