Are you inspired to tell the stories of your family's favourite getaway?

Would you love to share the story behind a local landmark?

Telling stories about your childhood home, your town, and your travels can be complex, if you are dealing with photos from multiple cameras. Time moves on and you can't quite remember where you were when you took that snapshot. Was it Nowra, Wagga Wagga, Airlie Beach, or the Gold Coast?

Having just come back from a trip all over the eastern states of Australia, remembering where my photos were shot can take a bit of deduction. If you have a GPS in your camera or use location services on your phone photos, you are in luck!

Using Photoshop Elements Organizer you can quickly find where your photos were taken. Organizer can see this information automatically adds them to a map in the Places view in Organizer. Though my camera doesn't have a GPS, the Eye-Fi SD card does.

This feature is perfect for finding photos of say, a favourite family holiday spot throughout the years or locating photos taken at your parent's home.

Don't have a GPS or Camera Phone? Don't Despair!

You can still use Organizer to locate your photos manually. I'd recommend you do this for a family holiday or trip away from home, rather than for every photo, as it could get time consuming.

Click on the Places view button.

A map will appear, click Add Places.

Select the photos which you recognize to have been taken from one place and enter the location in the search box.

Further specify the location by dragging the Yellow rectangle on the map.

And click on the Green Tick/Check Mark to confirm.

This should create a Red rectangle to indicate you have that number of pictures taken from that location.

In this case, we click on the red rectangle with the number 7...

and this will show us the 7 photos taken from that Location in the photo bin to the left.

It's pretty awesome!

So having a map feature is pretty cool, but it's more than just a novelty. Here are two ways the Places view in Photoshop Elements can help you can tell your stories:

1. Tell a heritage story with a modern photo

It's not likely that you have photos of your family's homes at your fingertips, but if you've ever travelled for a family reunion, you likely stopped by the home and taken a shot or two.

In this page, I used two photos take in modern times, to tell a story about my grandmother's home town of Kalgoorlie. It was easy to zoom in on the map in Organizer to see the photos I had of those locations and select a couple to scrap.

2. Scrap a Road Trip, accurately

If you have ever been left wondering where a photo was taken and at which town you visited, you'll love the map view.

We just returned from a holiday and visited many different locations. In a few months from now, the details may be foggy, but I'll easily be able to find all our Sea World photos over the three days we were there. All the photos at ready for me to access in one spot, regardless of where the files are located and which device was used (We had 2 phones, our point and shoot camera and my parents' camera all snapping away happily!)

Looking ahead, as I imagine we will in a few years time, it will be fun to scrap a couple of "then and now" pages showing the children growing up. It will be easy to see all the photos:

1. 

   Click on places
2. Zoom in to map location
3. Click on the red location flag.
4. Click show media
5. Scrap your favourite photos!

Having your photos on a map is just one of the many automated features in Photoshop Elements Organizer. You'll learn so much more in Organizing for Absolute Beginners. Inside this class,  you will help make a place for everything and have everything in its place in just five lessons.

I will teach you how you too can have your photos at your fingertips and put your software to work for you.

We’ll cover:

• Automating the import process - so you don’t have to remember what you’ve imported and what you haven’t
• Managing multiple devices - so you can always find the photos you need
• Creating a hands-free backup system that won’t cost the earth - so your memories are safe
• Advanced searching techniques so you can find the photos you need in a snap - forget hunting for the perfect shot
• How to maintain your system in just a few minutes at a time - so things keep running like clockwork

Check it out now

If you could wave a magic wand over your photos, how would your photos be organized?