Year-End Organizing Checklist for Photographers - TDS Photography Podcast

This is The Digital Story Podcast 1,029, Dec. 9, 2025. Today's theme is, "Year-End Organizing Checklist for Photographers." I'm Derrick Story.

It's easy for photographers to be distracted by holiday sales as the year closes. Black Friday discounts and Cyber Monday deals are indeed tempting. But instead of focusing on acquiring new gear, this is a great time of year to manage what we already have. And that's what we're going to talk about on today's TDS Photography Podcast. I hope you enjoy the show.

Digital Photography Podcast 1029

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Year-End Organizing Checklist for Photographers

Over the course of the previous 11 months, many of us bought new accessories, cameras, and lenses. Most likely we traveled to beautiful destinations and filled our SD cards with thousands of images. And if we're lucky, we even made a few dollars along the way.

December is the perfect time to organize and account for all of that activity. Have you documented the serial numbers for your new gear? Is your backup system up to date? Do you know where your receipts are? Do you have any plans for next year?

This podcast can serve as a handy checklist to make sure your photography-house is in order as we prepare to embark upon 2026. Let's start with image backup and archiving.

Protect the Work You've Done

I think in terms of calendar year when organizing my images. In part, this is how my brain works. So I soon will be closing out 2025 and starting anew with 2026.

This year's images have been backed up along the way. But December is the time to test your system to make sure it's as robust as you believe it is. And that's item one on our checklist: Test Your Backup System.

I have my images organized on an external RAID drive and on a portable SSD. My favorite shots are saved in iCloud as an additional layer of convenience and protection. I can access my Cloud account from any of my devices as long as I have an internet connection.

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