I picked up the first memory card. I would start with the oldest photos and work my way forwards in time to the newest photos. That would make sense.
I put the memory card back down. I'm not a big fan of sense. Where's the fun in that?
So I picked up the last memory card, number 13, loaded it into my Samsung ES75 camera, connected it to my laptop with a USB cable, fired up the flux capacitor, and accelerated to 88 miles per hour.
My nephew Toby, ladies and gentleman. In case you're worried about saying something un-PC, Toby is healthy in every way, including his eyes. Cheeky monkey.
This was taken on a short cruise to Bruges in May 2014 for my Dad's 60th Birthday. Unfortunately the sea was so rough that we couldn't dock in Belgium so instead we bobbed around in the channel for two days.
My favourite photo from one of seven weddings I went to last year. The bride's name was Holly and the groom's name was... Darren? I think? I can't remember. They are friends of my friend Steven.
Steven asked me to be his plus-one at the last minute. Everyone assumed that I was his gay lover.
Which I'm not. Just to clarify.
Firle Beacon in August. Immense. The people in the photo are my friends Rupert & Nicky and Nick & Anna. I went for a walk and took some photos because five's a crowd, right?
Nicky & Rupert organised a weekend of camping because it was their last chance before they have a baby. It was very sweet of them to invite me and I absolutely loved drinking and chatting with them around a camp fire and then walking onto the South Downs the next day.
A summer sunset in Buxted Park. I adore this place and walk there regularly all year round. The way the sun illuminates the long grass like this and a breeze ripples through it in waves is an awesome performance that I just have to stop and watch.
I have seen so many photos that make me smile on just 1 memory card. What will I find on the other 12?
What do you wish you could do that would put a smile on your face?
What good is a memory card if you can't remember what's on it?
About this time last year I was moving boxes, stacking boxes and unpacking boxes. Fortunately I wasn't living in one. I had moved back to my hometown and was squeezing years and years worth of accumulated belongings into a small bedroom and a cluttered garage. Needs must.
Whilst unpacking, I came across several cameras and camera cases and boxes of camera-related wires and discs. I put them all in a plastic storage box under my desk because I wanted to keep them safe and I wanted to know where they were. I'd sort them out later.
On Friday I finally pulled that box out from under my desk, opened it, and began searching for digital memory cards. I thought maybe I'd find half a dozen. Perhaps a couple more.
I found 13 memory cards!
I couldn't believe how many there were. Had I bought that many? Did they still work? What on earth was on them?
I felt a curious flutter of excitement. The sort of anticipation I used to feel when picking up photos from the developers.
One at a time I inserted the memory cards into whichever camera accepted them and then looked at the first and last few photos on each card. Some photos were tagged with a date, some weren't. For those that weren't, I estimated a date based on the events recorded in the photos.
I caught glimpses of a road trip to Edinburgh (I nearly moved there), a Caribbean holiday (bliss), a fancy dress pub crawl in Brighton (I got thrown out of a bar - long story), day trips with my ex-girlfriend, teacher training in London (I was a 'mature' student - yeah right!), a holiday in Norway, a stag do in Belgium (cold, so cold), and my first craft fair.
In this way I was able to put the cards in chronological order.
2005 to 2014. Ten years! A decade of my life recorded on 13 little rectangles made of metal and plastic.
My next step is to download the photos (Is it downloading or uploading? Do I care?) onto my external hard drive and then file them in folders by date and event.
That sounds suspiciously like hard work.
Do you wish you did more with your photos? Why not dig out a favourite snap from your past and share it with me.
Once upon a time, before there were slim digital cameras and smartphones with screens to playback your selfies, there were big bulky plastic cameras into which you loaded a roll of light-sensitive photographic film.
You squinted through a small viewfinder, took a photo, wound on the film using a small crank, and then took another photo.
But not just any photo. Oh no. You would choose your subject carefully and frame it just so, because you would only get 24 or 36 photos on each roll.
Am I sounding old and nostalgic? Excellent, I'll continue...
When you got back from your trip, you would take your rolls of film to a photo-developing shop where the staff would develop the negatives and print your photos onto paper (usually glossy) over 24 hours whilst having a good chuckle at your rubbish photography skills and a good perv at your beach snaps.
The wait to collect your photos was excruciating and delicious. Would they be as amazing as you expected them to be? Or would they be a murky mess because somebody opened the back of the camera too soon? Or the flash didn't go off? Or you were standing at the far side of a rock concert and the only thing you illuminated was the left ear of the tall git in front of you.
Whatever the result, it would be a surprise. It was exciting.
The next delight was choosing which photos to put in a photo album. And in which order. A few hours later your photos would be lovingly sealed beneath a clingy film or carefully wedged into slits inside a large hardback album.
Et voila! A book of happy memories.
Fast forward to today and my photos, which number in their thousands without the limitations of film, are mere digital files scattered across SD memory cards, my laptop, an external hard drive, my mobile phone and numerous social media websites.
Frankly, it's a mess.
I can never recapture the suspense of waiting for my photos to be developed; I have seen all of my digital photos a mere moment after taking them.
But I can still experience the pleasure of choosing which photos to put in an album, and in which order.
I know that many people these days upload their digital photos onto websites that print them directly into books.
I haven't done that. Not yet.
So this month I will organise my digital photos, print some, and put them in an album. Whatever format that may be.
What is your wish of the month? What do you wish you could do by the end of January?
