What makes me able to assist you in organizing your mounting problem of digital photos and videos! I have over 35,000 images that are in a database that I can find in a matter of just a few minutes. Yes I have tried most of the software and with most I find some holes. So, I designed my own system that is very simple and easy to manage.

What I’m going to show you is the ideas and thought process to name and organize all your memories.

There are really six steps in getting this simple task done.

#1 - Have all your photos in one main folder. Many people will simply use the “My Pictures” folder already on your hard drive.

#2 – Add a folder for each event
The criterion for the folder is EVENTS. The example below is just a sample of a group of photos. This outlines the major events first. CHILDS NAME (if you have several kids you could name this ‘KIDS”), FAMILY (general folder for all IMMEDIATE family), WORK (work parties), CHURCH (events at church like special holidays or celebrations, and finally a MISC folder for all the little things that don’t fit into a major event or category.

EXAMPLE:
My pictures
KIDS
FAMILY
WORK
CHURCH
MISC

#3 – Add a folder for each year.
For some EVENTS you will gather a large number of pictures so we need to divide them up into smaller categories. Like the KIDS folder, I would break down by month or year depending on how many pictures you take
EXAMPLE:
My Pictures
KIDS
2008_01
2008_02
2008_03

#4 – Create and name your Photos
This is the most important step. This is the backbone of your search capabilities. In order to remember your priceless moments we need to add a few pieces of information. Approximate date and description of the event are key factors to organizing. YOU MUST KEEP THIS IN ORDER!

1) 4 digit year (2008)

2) 2 digit month (01= January)

3) 2 digit day ( always us 01,02 for 1- 9)

4) Description- you need two things: the place and a description of the event. Use one or two words to describe the event MAX 3- 5 words

5) Always use separator between each section. This insures your photo will always sort in order

Example:

I went to a birthday party this past weekend. I know when, where and with whom by my description below. I add the 01& 02 (for each photo) at the end so I can keep the name the same for an entire group.
2008_05_04_durango_birthday_park_lucas_01
2008_05_04_durango_birthday_park_lucas_02

**Quick note: If you edit or change a photo. Always save it as the master name with an addition of another description. Never change the original photo.
2008_05_04_durango_birthday_park_lucas_01_webR
This name tells me its ready to post on my web site

#5 – You must be consistent with this system when you download your photos from your camera to your computer. It makes it so simple when you keep this up. This first initial organization is very time consuming. If you slack off it will be a real chore to do it again at a later date.

#6- If you are on a Windows system you can change the names in bulk (by special event). Go highlight them all and right click on the first one and select “RENAME” change the name and hit enter. Windows will change all the names in sequential order.

My secret tips:

You can also use this for your videos.

The system I use is more complex and I will explain in another post. I have so many pictures that I have to break it down in other ways. I say that because I edit, crop and do several things with my photos and I NEVER want to touch the original image.

Yes I have duplicates and another folder system because I believe in never editing or changing the original photo.

When someone asks you if you remember a certain event, what do you need to remember it? Do you need to remember the time of year? Or the date: day or night? While these may be helpful most of us really us three things to remember a specific event!

DATE
PLACE
A DESCRIPTION – of the specific event

This is really simple but it turns out to be very helpful when it comes to organizing your memories. Most people take pictures at special events. And it’s these events that help us remember in order to locate the pictures they have taken.

Naming your picture folders with the name that includes these three pieces of information will help you remember the event you’re looking for, and therefore you should be able to locate the pictures you want to find.

Effective folder naming:

EXAMPLE: 2008_05_01_Durango_Lucas_Birthday

Naming convention: Year_Month_Day_ Description

Folder name includes a DATE for its content. You need at least the Year and month.

Use 4 digit for year
Use 2 digit for the month
Use 2 digit for the day – this is great for daily events when on a trip or for a new baby
Use the PLACE or EVENT
Use brief 3 – 5 word DESCRIPTION

· ALL SEPARATED BY DELIMITER – underscore or dash

The most important item is to stick to this system. You always have to do this and over time it will be easy to find those priceless memories. You must also always start with the date so the computers operating system will file the folders according to the date.

What is your purpose for spending the time and money in capturing this priceless moment. Is it for someone special, your kids or just to have something to remind you of the moment? Technology has changed so much that I believe we have lost the art of photography.

It’s so easy to just go out and snap a few hundred photos and see what turns out. Hope I get a good one! Then most of us never do anything with them. We never show them to people, get prints or hang them on the wall.

I remember when my son was born and I carried a whole new stack of pictures every week to show every one at work. I also got doubles in case those were ruined or fingerprinted. Yes, you could say I was a little crazy. So, I wont even tell you I also got them on CD’s.

Sometime I look at my kids and wonder why are they like that. A few days ago I leaned over and pulled an album out and remember they were just like that when they were babies. My 9 yr old even has the exact same expression.

Photography to me is about telling a story. The story of life. People used to write in journals about their day to day experiences both good and bad. We had to visualize the story as we read it. Now we use photos to tell that story.

A photo freezes the moment and you still have to visualize what was happening. The rest of the story!

So when grabbing your camera really think about what you want to capture and who you are capturing it for.