In the first year of my son’s life, I took just over 5,000 photos. Admittedly, they aren’t all great shots, and they aren’t all of my son–a few do include my exhausted husband passed out on the couch. For the most part, the shots capture typical days in our chaotic, sleep-deprived lives. When I need a quick pick-me-up, I scroll through them, marveling at how quickly the time flies.

When our second child–a gorgeous baby girl–was born in January, I found our massive photo collection valuable in new ways, too. With a flick of the mouse, I can turn back time to remind myself when my son starting hitting certain milestones, like grabbing toys or rolling over. And since I didn’t always wait for flattering moments to pick up the camera, they’ve helped remind us that, yes, our first-born had bad days, too. For my son, it has done wonders to help alleviate the inevitable pang of jealousy when I can show him that he too got to be carried around in the sling, took baths in the sink, and played with special toys. Having so much visual evidence of his early days has helped him get the idea that this is his sister’s turn.

Of course, the danger of having all those photos on your computer is that computers sometimes fail. If you’re not pro- tected when the inevitable happens, you risk losing years–if not decades–of precious photos. If you don’t already have a backup plan in place, flip to page 17 for advice on how to get started. Elements expert Barbara Brundage lays out three easy options for backing up your photo library, and spells out the advantages and drawbacks of each. Backing up isn’t a glamor- ous task, but it’s one that’s well worth making time for.

On the lighter side, you’ll also find several fun ways to play with your photos in this issue: Mike Rodriguez explains how to use displacement maps to distort your photos so they appear to be painted on a textured surface (page 4), while Diana Day demonstrates the popular Out of Bounds effect, which lets part of your image poke out from the photo’s border (page 23). And for those not-quite-perfect shots of loved ones and friends, turn to page 8 where Lesa Snider shows how to touch up double chins, make eyes pop, and mask those bags under your subject’s eyes–something I’m all too familiar with these days.

As always, you’ll find additional resources–including project files and extra tips–in the Magazine section of the website under the Extras heading. We’ve also now started including a list of any links mentioned in the magazine, so you don’t have to type the URLs by hand. We hope this helps. If there are other ways we can make using the magazine easier, please let us know.

Kelly Turner