Ask HN: How do you manage photos, philosophically?

I've finally decided on a system that works for backups and devices that don't have image recognition as well as Google photos and iCloud!

I have two types of folder:

Folders for specific events or activities

And folders for common themes for the year.

The themed folders can change throughout the years which is interesting to see but I tend to have the same core few.

I found if I grouped too many things into YYYY-MM(-DD) format I couldn't find the photo of a night out from ten years ago because I didn't remember the month (or year!) But I did know that it was with uni friends or work friends which narrowed down the folders greatly! Ofc iCloud and Google photos make that much easier now but I prefer to have my primary backups managed by me!

YYYY-MM Christmas YYYY-MM Holiday to abc YYYY-MM-DD day out at the zoo YYYY-MM House YYYY-MM Food YYYY-MM Gaming YYYY-MM Travel - days out YYYY-MM [Name of town i live in] YYYY-MM PC and tech YYYY-MM Inlaws YYYY-MM Family YYYY-MM Guinea pigs

Etc

One of the interesting things I found was that I was taking photos of random things around the house, some flowers, or the light at a particular time of day was interesting. Previously I'd have tried to organise those by month or more granularly but I now have a 'house' (or flat) folder for each year which I really enjoy looking back through to see how the house has changed. It's also useful for before/after photos I forgot to take! I have one of these folders for other houses or locations I visit often or take photos of random objects in like my parents or in law's house! I also have one for my local area.

I also have a series of Outbox folders for memes, references etc. In more recent times I've started removing screenshots and images I've saved from places from my phone and albums since they're not useful in a photo album!

Here’s a question I’ve wanted to ask — how many people just don’t take photos? I don’t have any philosophical bone to pick with it, I still take a photo if I need to reference something like where I parked; but I used to take photos on my phone at probably a normal frequency when I first became an adult, and I realized after a few years that I had never looked back on any photos I’d taken, so I just stopped taking them afterwards and never really felt any loss from not having them.

Incidentally, one unintended consequence of this behavior is realizing just how insignificant of a difference there is between smartphones even over 5+ years, if the camera is zero value add.

I make an album of the photos I like after an event. I'll make another pass after adding them, and if I don't love it or it doesn't make me feel good again, I remove it from the album (but don't delete it).

I have a few albums that are a category as opposed to an event and I'll occasionally add to those randomly.

I use google photos and backup using the same.

I do not like memories, as change can hurt my heart. I try to look back only about a year and just take a lot of photos anyway because my memory of events isn’t so good.

Yes, exactly! 0 regrets, all about some moment literally never happening again until the end of time.

Furthermore, the person I'm with is extremely emotionally intelligent, and she has experienced deep loss of over 20 people... she is an extreme veteran when it comes to emotionally accepting death/change.

For me, I feel like looking at memories is only a reflection how I can be hyper intelligent, but emotionally I feel like I'm 12 sometimes with how I deal with certain things. Maybe that it takes me a long time to integrate things which are painful. Above all else, daily, I feel perfectly capable and sharp, and I know deep down I will be fine, but then there is always this otehr side... hard to explain