Let me paint you a picture.
Your mother-in-law asks for a family photo for a Christmas card. Simple request, right? Except you spend two weeks hunting through your camera roll, finally find something recent, do a quick edit, send it… and feel a little embarrassed that it took that long.
That’s exactly what happened to me. A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER. Who takes photos for a living.
So if your phone is a graveyard of blurry running shots, seventeen versions of the same smile, and screenshots you forgot you took… you are in very good company, mama.
Why Your Camera Roll Feels Like a Hoarder’s Dream
We are living in a world where 4.7 BILLION photos are taken every single day across the globe. Every. Single. Day. So first things first… nobody has it all perfectly organised. Not even the type-A moms. Not even the photographers. That weight you’re carrying? You can put it down. We’re working with reality here, not perfection.
In this episode of the Art of Childhood podcast, I sat down with Kira Louu, founder of Frame of Life and the most organised human I think I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with. She is a retired criminal defence attorney turned photographer and visual storyteller… and she has some genuinely brilliant systems for getting your photos out of the chaos and into something that actually feels GOOD.
A Little Taste of What We Cover
The Daily Delights method.
This one came from a really personal place for Kira… she struggled with postpartum depression after her first child and found herself feeling like nothing good was happening during the day. But then she’d get into bed at night and scroll back through her camera roll and she’d SEE it. All the magic she missed in the moment.
She started favouriting the photos she loved using the little heart icon, then bulk deleting the rest. What was left? A camera roll that told a beautiful story of the day. She called it her daily delights and honestly… it sounds like the most gentle little gratitude practice wrapped up in something you’re probably already doing.
(I’ll be honest, mine would probably be weekly delights at best. But still. The GOAL is there.)
The MVP Album system.
When Kira noticed her son kept going back to look at photos of himself fishing, she made him a fishing album. Just that. Photos of Charlie and the fish. And from there, she walks us through a beautifully simple way to build folders within folders on your phone so that the golden moments don’t just disappear into the scroll.
Folder naming that becomes a memory in itself.
This one blew my mind a little. Kira names every folder with the year, month, day and a description of what happened. So instead of just a date, you have something like… 2025.10.31 Halloween pumpkin hunting. And at the end of the year? You can scroll through the folder names alone and relive your entire year. No photo required.
What to actually DO with your photos once they’re organised.
Because the whole point isn’t just to have a tidy hard drive, is it? We talk about gallery walls, memory boxes, photo ornaments, and these incredible personalised board books that put YOUR kid’s face right into the story. Hearing how Kira’s kids engaged with those books… that part made my heart very full.
For the Big Camera Girls Too
I also share my own system for organising DSLR and mirrorless family photos alongside client work (yes, including the Back Blaze situation, which Kira was very enthusiastic about), and we chat through where the phone and the proper camera can actually work together in your memory keeping practice.
One Thing Before You Hit Play
Kira says something early in this episode that I want you to hold onto as you listen…
“We will never be able to organise ALL of our photos. And that’s okay. Let’s just get some real strategies that actually work.”
That’s the whole vibe. No overwhelm. No shame. Just a few small things that start to make it feel lighter.
Ready to get into it? Listen to the full episode right here.
And Kira’s no-BS photo organising workshop (yes, that’s what it’s called, and yes, it suits her perfectly) is linked in the show notes with a special code just for our listeners.
Go have a listen, mama. This one’s a good one.
Tune into the full episode on your preferred Podcast host:
Guest Links
• Connect with Kiera: Instagram ( / frameoflifeproject )
• Podcast: Frame of Life (https://frameoflife.co/category/podcast/)
• Use CODE “MAMA” to save 10% on the “No BS Photo Organization Workshop” (https://no-bullsh-t-photo-organizatio…) (https://no-bullsh-t-photo-organizatio…)
• Website: Frame of Life (https://frameoflife.co/category/podcast/)
Episode Links
• FREE 30 Days of Backblaze Computer Backup (https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backu…)
• Photo Management with Ollie AI App (https://getollie.ai/) (formerly The GoodOnes)
• Project Tracking with Airtable (https://www.airtable.com/)
• Turn your photos into keepsakes with Pinhole Press (https://www.pinholepress.com/)
Links + Resources
Mamastalgia resources and freebies: https://mamastalgia.co
Join the Mamastalgia Facebook Group: / mamastalgia
Follow Mamastalgia on Instagram: / mamastalgia
Credits Hosted and co-produced by Courts (Mamastalgia and Blury Photography)
Mixed, edited, and co-produced by Blury Audio: https://www.bluryaudio.com
