By Caitlin Mae | Jacksonville, FL Family Photographer serving Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, St. Augustine & surrounding Northeast Florida communities
Here's a strange thing about our generation of parents: we are the most photographed families in human history, and somehow we have the least to show for it.
Your grandmother had a shoebox. Maybe two. Every photo in them had been held, looked at, passed around a table. She knew exactly where they were.
You have 14,000 photos on your phone, an iCloud storage warning, and the vague anxiety that you really should do something with all of them someday.
"Someday" has a way of not arriving.
I'm a Jacksonville family photographer, so I think about this a lot. Not just for my clients across Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, and St. Augustine, but honestly for myself too. Because even people who are intentional about capturing moments can end up with beautiful images they never actually use. And a photo no one ever sees is, in a quiet way, already a little bit lost.
So here's what I actually recommend, in order of how much time it takes.
First: back them up to somewhere that isn't just your phone
This is urgent, and most people skip it until it's too late. Phones get lost, stolen, dropped in the ocean at Jacksonville Beach or Ponte Vedra Beach. They die. They get full and photos get deleted without thinking. I've heard this story from Jacksonville and St. Augustine moms more times than I can count and it's heartbreaking every time.
Google Photos (free, up to 15GB) or iCloud will automatically back up every photo you take. Turn it on today, right now, before you keep reading. It takes two minutes and it matters more than anything else on this list.
If you want a physical backup, an external hard drive is under $50 and will hold your entire library.
Pick your 50 best photos from each year
Not all of them. Fifty.
Sit down once a year (I like to do this in January, looking back at the previous year) and scroll through everything. Mark your favorites. The ones that actually make you feel something, not just the ones where everyone's eyes are open. Fifty is a number that feels manageable and also forces you to choose the ones that actually matter.
Whether it's a morning at the St. Augustine Lighthouse, a random Tuesday at home in Nocatee, or a beach day at Huguenot Park - the photos that make you stop and smile are the ones worth keeping.
Save those to a dedicated album. Label it by year. Now you have a curated record of your family's life instead of an overwhelming scroll.
Make one photo book per year
This is the thing I recommend most to every Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, and St. Augustine family I work with. Not a massive archive. Just one small book, made from your 50 favorites.
Chatbooks is dead simple and inexpensive - about $30 for a small softcover book. Artifact Uprising makes something more beautiful if you want to invest a little more. Either way, a printed book is something your kids can actually hold. Something that lives on a shelf. Something that doesn't require a password or a working device to access.
My clients often tell me that the albums I create for them are the first time they've ever actually sat with their family photos instead of scrolling past them. There's something about a professionally designed, heirloom-quality album - the weight of it, the way the images are sequenced - that a DIY book just can't replicate. But that experience is available to you with your phone photos too. You just have to start somewhere and print them.
Put one photo on your wall
Research consistently shows that children who grow up seeing family photographs displayed in their homes develop a stronger sense of belonging and higher self-esteem. They see themselves as part of something. They know they are loved in a way that feels permanent.
You don't need a gallery wall. You need one framed photo. Pick a photo that makes you happy every time you see it. Get it printed and framed and hang it in your home. Your kids will grow up seeing themselves reflected back - seen, remembered, loved. Trust me, it'll make you all smile much more often.
What to do with the rest
Delete them. Genuinely. The blurry ones, the accidental ones, the seventeen nearly identical shots from that one afternoon at the splash pad - let them go. Storage is not the same as memory. Keeping everything doesn't mean you'll remember more. It usually means you'll look at it less.
The goal isn't to document everything. It's to have something to hold onto.
Your kids are growing up fast. Whether you're watching them run through the St. Augustine historic district, playing on the beaches of Ponte Vedra, or just growing up too quickly in your Jacksonville home. The photos you're taking matter. They deserve somewhere to live other than a camera roll no one opens.
Back them up. Pick your favorites. Print a few. Put one on the wall.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
I’m Caitlin Mae
Caitlin Mae is a Jacksonville, FL family photographer specializing in heirloom portraits and custom albums for families across Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Augustine, Nocatee, and all of Northeast Florida. If you're ready to create images worth printing, let's talk.
