Leave the Memories to us.

Photo Management Services

Managing your photos is so much more than just deleting the duplicates and tossing blurry shots. We’ll put our decades of experience to work and create a photo collection that brings you joy every day. You’ll be thrilled at the forgotten treasures at your fingertips and have peace of mind knowing that your precious family memories are safe and secure.

  • It all begins with gathering your scattered media in one place. We inventory all your sources - boxes of prints, video tapes, CD’s, movie film, half-forgotten online galleries and social media, hard drives, computers, old photo albums. Digital images are moved to one master volume and we identify the duplicates. Image dates are checked for accuracy, data is checked to work correctly with the final software so everything sorts chronologically. Duplicates are removed. Prints and film are digitized to create one master digital collection.

  • All media is merged into one collection and the sort is fine-tuned to display correctly. Family milestones are labeled for search, curated albums for high-value events are created to make review easy. People tagging and location tagging are added per client request. Video edits and photo adjustments are done as necessary.

  • The photo management software of choice is installed on your devices. The collection is added to your management software. We get you and/or your family librarian familiar with the ways to enjoy your pictures and ensure a wonderful viewing experience.

  • Your family collection needs to be safely and securely backed up and archived to keep your memories secure from loss. You may also require privacy protection for your media. We set up a system to fit your requirements that offers the most flexibility within security considerations.

  • Sharing your photos among close family members, friends, and select people in your circle adds value to the collection. Whether that’s a few favorite images, a video montage of some special moment, or an heirloom fine art photo album that celebrates your family heritage, we will be there to help you create priceless experiences from the image collection.

BOOK A FAMILY MEDIA CONSULTATION

How we do it . . .

Digital Media Recovery

The early 2000’s launched the era of digital photography and everyone shooting film got on board. Now our drawers are full of old hard drives, thumb-sized flash drives. Homemade CD’s and DVD’s that hold favorite photos and videos. Computers. Mobile phones, camcorders, and digital cameras - including cards - that are sitting in a box because we’re sure some priceless photo or video is on it. Somewhere.

We call it Digital Media Recovery. And it’s a lot of what we do. Finding old/lost/forgotten image files and getting them back in your life. Then we help you decide what to keep and what to trash.

Digitizing Prints & Film

Digitizing is the process of making physical media - prints, film, postcards, audio and video tape, documents - into digital files that you can view, share, and make exact duplicates to safely store in an archive location. Just in case. It may be described as scanning or converting, but it’s all the same idea. Turning the original one-of-a-kind media into digital versions that offer better options for viewing, organizing, sharing, and preserving your memories. There are important considerations for handling digital images that we help you understand.

Photo Curating

A primary goal of photo management is to create curated photo collections that make a richer story than the photos by themselves. It may be for a retrospective or video montage. You may create a photo book from the best shots of a trip. We review your project goals and edit down to the essential story using our decades’ experience creating photo albums and image collections. Physical books and elegant wall art is the grandest expression of your images and the life story they tell. And for active families with ongoing organizing and quickly growing libraries, we offer our Charter Collection service with ongoing maintenance.

Photo Management Software

Choosing the right photo management software is an essential part of how you experience your photos. With over 20 years experience managing digital images, Bluewater Photo Management tailors the solution to your personal needs. Need a super easy, reliable way to take and review your pictures every day? We’ll show you Apple Photos. Something more customizable? The family is on multiple platforms? Mylio Photos may be your best choice. Perhaps you want a professional level solution that offers powerful video and document access in a secure environment. We have the answer. Whatever your desired experience, we can help set up and train you to get the most out of your photo collection and keep it up to date.

Book production

With 20 years experience in the commercial printing industry and another 20 years producing bespoke books for clients, our photo books and albums are second to none. We use book printers who create books to the highest standards across a variety of formats and materials. We can create a book series for an extended family or small business gift or a bespoke heirloom edition that will be the center of discussion.

Video Editing/Montage Authoring

Whether for a celebration or a personal retrospective, video is powerful and engaging media. We can review and edit all the clips from a lifetime of footage to come up with meaningful moments and smiles all around.

Some Example Projects

  • The client wanted to make a fine art photo book for her daughter’s 30th birthday that showed her life events along with family and friends over the 30 years. We worked with her to collect relevant photos from her Apple Photos Library along with an external archive drive. The client also had prints to be scanned and included in the books.

    We edited the collection, merged everything into a working library and posted it to a private site for the client to make the final image selection. The selects were then color adjusted and moved to book design. Because of the number of photos selected, we suggested splitting the project into 2 volumes and worked with the client to finalize the layout. The book layouts received a final review and were sent to the printer for completion.

    The daughter loved the books and the client had the satisfaction of creating a very special gift for her daughter’s milestone birthday.

  • The client is a photo enthusiast who had been making manual photo libraries as backups for several years and it was taking up too much space as well as confusing his backup strategy. He wanted to merge everything into one consolidated backup library but was concerned about losing his organization on early libraries.

    Being a remote client, we walked him through the process of copying all the old libraries to a portable hard drive and had him send it to us.

    The hard drive contained 14 Apple Photos Libraries with almost 260k photos, 19k videos, and 4707 albums. We inventoried the libraries and ran diagnostics to ensure they would merge without issues. Then we checked the date ranges to create a logical sequence for the library merges. Where albums had been created, we added album titles to the photo caption fields and documented them so they could be recreated if the album structure was lost.

    Albums were successfully reduced to a single merged library with 7,108 photos and 144 videos.

  • The client is a retired photojournalist who has decades of photos that were saved and backed up to multiple hard drives over the years. Some were stored in out-of-date software and some were no longer wanted. After using Aperture (no longer supported) and Adobe Lightroom Classic (no longer wanted) she needed all her photos inventoried and duplicates removed so she could access them in Apple Photos.

    We received 3 boxes containing 17 hard drives of various sizes and condition. Most photos were in folders and needed to be cataloged to compare with other folders and catalogs. Old iPhoto libraries and Aperture libraries had to be accessed and the photos migrated to new Libraries.

    After eliminating duplicates and tagging photos with appropriate identifiers, the entire collection was merged into one photo library and sent to the client. Now she can see her photo history in one consolidated photo library and she is thrilled.

Our Promise

At Bluewater Photo Management, we're on a mission to safeguard your precious memories. We understand the importance of your family's stories and are dedicated to creating organized, secure, and private media collections from your print and digital photos and videos.

Our goal is to ensure that your cherished moments remain accessible and protected, beautifully preserved for generations to come. With our keen attention to detail and commitment to excellence, we offer a seamless and personalized experience. Trust us to bring your memories to life, so you can relive them with ease and peace of mind every day.

Some thoughts from others

  • "Paul is a gifted teacher.  He is clever at articulating concepts that add a new dimension to your photos and how to work with them in the Apple world."

  • "I have worked with Paul on multiple projects: from organizing my photos to making videos and photo books. These projects were all different. But what they had in common was the relief I felt in having someone as talented as Paul to take charge – to manage the whole process, to organize my videos, pictures, and photo library, to solve any creative and technical issues, to make the product superior, and honestly, to move me from near paralysis to accomplishing the outcomes I wanted."

  • “Paul is literally an apple genius! In the best possible way he shares his genius about the apple ecosystem generously and in language accessible to everyone."

Get in touch.

So let’s talk. I’m betting that you have an important story to tell. And I’m betting that it’s been on your mind a long time.

If you’d like to send a note, just go to our CONTACT PAGE HERE.

If you’re ready to have a call, you can SCHEDULE A 30 MINUTE CONSULT HERE.

If you prefer emailing me directly, you can use MY EMAIL.