Spend Your Weekend Organizing Your Digital Photos!
Help! My Digital Photos Are A Disaster!
Photo 000_0001.jpg was a picture of my son, John, actually dressed up in a nice outfit to go out! Who knew? I certainly didn't! And there are a few thousand (I'm not exaggerating, either) photos just like it... unidentified and useless.
Now over the years since I went digital, I have been extremely paranoid about backing up all my photos... that's why I'm still lucky enough to have all these unknown gems. Trouble is, they do me no good in the state they're in!
I always stored my photos on my computer by the date they were taken. But lately, with all the writing I've been doing, I find myself searching for photos of a particular person, dog, or object to no avail. I'm missing out on a lot of great shots I could have used in my writing!
Inspiration of a new way to store them finally struck, and now I'm hard at work getting it done! It may take me weeks or months... but at least now I have a sense of purpose to it. I'll share my method with you later in case it might be helpful to you.
Get The Camera I Use! - I Promise You'll Love It!
I've used two different models of the Fuji FinePix digital camera, and I absolutely love it. It's extremely versatile, has an easy user interface, and most of all takes fantastic photos very easily! It also has a nice software interface for uploading to your computer, too.
How I'm Doing It
Here's Another "Found" Photo
I'm working on a Mac, but this method will work with any computer...
I'm doing a search for whatever subject I want. Say, John for example. When all the pics come up, first I look at the un-ID'd files like IMG_Whatever. I rename them appropriately for what they are.
My next step is to create a new folder on my desktop, this will be called "Pics Of... Whoever." In this case it's "Pics Of John."
I then move all the files from my search that I want to use to this new folder location.
Once I have that, the next step is to open up my Picasa application. (You'll open whatever online storage place you use).
I create a new album called "Pics of John" in Picasa. Then I move all his files to that Picasa window and upload the photos. Voila!
I now have an organized folder on my computer that contains all the known pictures of John, plus I have it backed up online. Now isn't that special!
What Do You Think Of This Idea? - Come On, You Can Tell Me!
Here is a picture I uncovered today of my beloved baby Scrappy Jack, standing by the pond I built at our old house. Now that's a gem!
Do you think this is a good way to organize digital photos?
What's hiding in your computer's photo files? Hmmm...
My Videos On YouTube
I haven't scratched the surface in uploading all my videos... but it's a goal! Here are the ones I have so far.
Some Of The Images I Found This Weekend! - What great memories!
Click thumbnail to view full-size
Please Say Hello In My Guestbook!
Any time spent with opening sweet old memories is a great investment and I enjoyed yours for the first time, thank you!
Good idea. I have to do it also :)
I enjoy going through all my photos but I don't do it often enough. You've prompted me to to have another sort through..
Oh! I need more organization. The time I spend looking through files ,,,
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@Elyn MacInnis: SheilaSchnauzies
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@anonymous: SheilaSchnauzies
You are great to take on all your old photos - that is no easy job! I keep telling myself to do a little at a time, but I never seem to get to it. If I do, I spend hours at it. Maybe that is the same thing in the long run!
Hello...I was ignoring my photos, I'm a good procrastinator. Great lens!
Thanks for reminding me about picasa. I used it before but it seemed too professional. It scanned every image files of my computer which was pretty scary because some of them I don't aware of.
Hi, nice lens.
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@suzy-t: Thank you so much for the blessing and the pin! Really appreciate both!
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@Mary Crowther: Glad I could help a little!
nice lens.
Great lens to get me motivated!
Great Ideas. I too, one day, will organize my photos. Blessed and pinned by a squid angel.
Good ideas : )
Hello!! Very nice lens!! Someday I will get to organizing but for now, my photos are all arranged by year. I try to unload after an event and then I mark the folder with that event. It gets messy though when I don't unload and I have a few different things on the card at the same time.
Thanks for the confirmation that all those photos need to be corralled. Good useful tips and sort of what I am doing but it''s nice to know that it's not just me. Our child was really cute when he was small and I found the pictures that show it.
I've just started on this excursion myself - I have thousands of digital photos to go through - sigh.
Nice lens, glad I found it, organize digital photos, for sure it needs doing.
Nice meeting you.
Organizing photos is a good idea of what to do during a week end, but I think something even more important is to look at them! Not just browse throw them, but really remembering the events, getting through the memories. Nowadays, people are spending more time taking pictures than looking at them. That's a shame. Otherwise, great article. I have written one myself about ideas of things to do during the weekend. Check it out when you are done with your pictures :-)
Useful reminder, even though we all like to organize in a different way! :)
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