So Bay to Breakers happened again last Saturday, right? Like usual, my phone and camera were absolutely flooded with pictures. Sunday morning rolls around, I fire up the laptop, hook up the gear, and bam – there are thousands of photos staring back at me. Total chaos. Where do you even start?
The Messy Morning Triage
First thing: gotta organize this disaster. Last year I just dumped everything into one massive folder called “Bay to Breakers 2023” and honestly, finding anything good felt like winning the lottery. Never again. This time, I got smart:
- Dumped all the shots into a brand new main folder: “Bay to Breakers 2024 FINAL”. Sounds official, feels better already.
- Created subfolders based on sections of the race route I remember snapping: “Embarcadero Start”, “Hayes Hill Chaos” (you know the one!), “Golden Gate Park Cruising”, “Ocean Beach Finish”.
- Made another folder just called “Absolutely Nuts Costumes” because, come on, Bay to Breakers.
Took me a solid hour just dragging and dropping, but seeing them grouped like that made the next step possible.
Picking the Winners Without Losing My Mind
Okay, reality check: no one wants to scroll through thousands of your photos. Not even your mom. I needed to cull hard. My secret sauce this year? Focusing on telling a tiny story.
Instead of just looking for “good” pictures, I asked myself: “Does this show the energy of the starting line crowds?”, “Does this capture the pure exhaustion/silliness halfway?”, “Is this costume so wild people HAVE to see it?” I went into each subfolder separately and ruthlessly picked maybe 10-20 shots max that felt like they represented that moment or vibe.
Found myself deleting tons of almost-good shots. Blurry? Gone. Weird facial expression? Deleted. Five very similar angles of the same group? Picked the best one. Seriously, cut mercilessly.
Quick Fixes Before Showtime
Most pics were decent straight out of the camera/phone, but Bay to Breakers light can be weird – foggy, sunny, shadowy, all in one race! Did some super basic tweaks ONLY on the final picks:
- Fixed wonky horizon lines. Can’t stand a tilted photo, drives me nuts.
- Cropped out weird photo bombers at the edges (only if it didn’t ruin the shot!).
- Adjusted brightness/contrast a tiny bit if things looked flat. Maybe played with vibrance slightly to make those crazy costumes pop. Didn’t go nuts with filters – wanted it to feel real.
Kept it simple and fast. Didn’t want to spend all day editing.
The Actual Posting Part (Easier Than I Thought!)
This is where I almost gave up in previous years. Figuring out the “right” way to share was such a headache. This time, I said screw it, let’s just do it.
- Chose Instagram first, since that’s where most people seem to look for this stuff.
- Posted ONE really strong cover shot as the main post. Just the vibe, you know? Captioned it with the vibe too, like “The energy at Hayes Street never disappoints! 🤪 #BaytoBreakers”
- Immediately after posting that single shot, I opened up my Instagram Stories.
- Clicked the “highlights” icon on that main post to link it to a NEW Highlight called “Bay to Breakers 2024”.
- Then, I dumped 10 more great shots into separate Story slides! Did a quick caption or sticker on each one (“Embarcadero Start!”, “This T-Rex won 🦖”, “Pure joy at the finish!” etc.). Super easy, super fast.
- Added a location tag for Bay to Breakers on both the post and the Story slides for discoverability.
Boom. Done. Took maybe 15 minutes after I had my final picks ready. The single strong post gets attention, and people who want more can tap the Highlight reel and swipe through the extra shots. Feels organized, not spammy.
What Happened Next?
Honestly? Way more engagement than previous years when I tried albums or massive dump posts. People liked the main post, and lots tapped the Highlight! Got DMs saying they found themselves or their friends’ costumes in the Story slides. Felt less overwhelming for me, and apparently less overwhelming for them too. Win-win. The key was prep (folders, ruthless culling) and using Stories/Highlights smartly instead of trying to share everything at once. Sharing doesn’t have to be perfect, just gotta share!
