Covid-19 has been an absolute downer for travel, with many of us yearning to take a plane, train or boat freely again. While we wait for vaccinations and countries around the world to get the virus under control, how about spending some of this downtime to trawl through your pile of old travel snaps, organise them, and perhaps even publish them?
Google Photos
photos.google.com
Arguably one of the best apps to manage photos, Google Photos is an efficient and user-friendly cloud-based programme for backing up photos to. The app can be set to automatically back up and sync photos by date, allows creation of albums and slideshows, and is easy to share with others.
Google Photos doesn’t just boast facial recognition, but also photo contents. Say if you’re looking for a specific photo, a plate of hummus you had in Turkey, you can effortlessly locate it by searching for “hummus”. No more mindless scrolling through hundreds of images to find that one photo.
However, starting June 1, 2021, all new photos and videos backed up in High quality and Express quality will count toward the free 15GB of storage that comes with your Google account or any additional storage you may have purchased. Photos prior to this date are exempt from this change.
Also on June 1, 2021, Google will be launching a new storage management tool which will help you easily find and delete dark, blurry, and otherwise unwanted content.
Slidebox
slidebox.co
Compared to film cameras and the costs of developing photos, spamming on the button to shoot photos on a smartphone is a free and fuss-free method to ensure you capture travel memories.
However, the problem is that you are most likely to end up with 20 photos of the same scenery. Enter Slidebox, a photo organising tool that takes a Tinder-like approach while helping you clear up some phone space (as the app doesn’t have its own storage).
When you launch the app, all of your unsorted photos are presented in a queue. Swiping left or right lets you navigate through the photo reel, while swiping up trashes the photo. On the bottom are your albums, which a simple tap allows you to organise photos easily.
Steller
steller.co
Now that your photo organisation is done, what’s next? How about downloading Steller, a photography and storytelling app that allows users to easily put together photo essays, akin to leafing through a coffee table book in its gorgeous glossy glory?
Steller works similarly to Instagram stories, but think of it as a more permanent version. App users can tap on the right to move to the next photo, and make use of various cropping tools alongside a variety of headers and fonts to tell whatever narrative they have in mind.
Jazzing up your photobook with personal thoughts and facts will make it a delight for anyone browsing your profile. Naturally, you can also share your published work easily with family and friends, as well as an online community that shares the same interests.
What’s your best holiday memory and pic? Send it to magnsman@sph.com.sg with a short 5-line description of that special moment, and we may publish your contribution!
