Christmas Gift
Hi all,
As I start this post, Christmas 2006 is now 40 minutes old, and I thought that I might offer this entry as a sort of “gift.” Let me explain...
When I took this job, I thought, “Yeah, a few posts a week... A few pictures a week... I’ll just dump everything into a simple, single Windows folder and work from there.” But it didn’t quite work out that way. Make absolutely no mistake about it... Photographing the backyard birds is every bit as addictive as fishing. Yesterday alone, I took 20 snapshots of the denizens of the feeders in the backyard. And when I added those JPGs to that “simple, single Windows folder”, I discovered that I had almost 300 picture files. Uh oh! Clearly, some system of organization was called for.
So I spent the next three hours setting up and fleshing out a simple system of organization using folder and file names. (The folder names can be seen below. Note that I didn't go crazy concerning capitalization, etc. I just got the job done.) A typical file name might take the form of: “bird name_photo type_camera settings_date.jpg”, e.g. “robin_left side profile_ISO 400_Jan 5 07.jpg”.
There are several advantages to that type of system:
Anyway, Merry Christmas...
See you by the feeders,
Alan
P.S. So what did Santa bring you? Click on the “Comments” button below and let us know!
P.P.S. There is one other advantage to consolidating all your pictures in a logical system... You’ll never know what you’ll find.
As I start this post, Christmas 2006 is now 40 minutes old, and I thought that I might offer this entry as a sort of “gift.” Let me explain...
When I took this job, I thought, “Yeah, a few posts a week... A few pictures a week... I’ll just dump everything into a simple, single Windows folder and work from there.” But it didn’t quite work out that way. Make absolutely no mistake about it... Photographing the backyard birds is every bit as addictive as fishing. Yesterday alone, I took 20 snapshots of the denizens of the feeders in the backyard. And when I added those JPGs to that “simple, single Windows folder”, I discovered that I had almost 300 picture files. Uh oh! Clearly, some system of organization was called for.
So I spent the next three hours setting up and fleshing out a simple system of organization using folder and file names. (The folder names can be seen below. Note that I didn't go crazy concerning capitalization, etc. I just got the job done.) A typical file name might take the form of: “bird name_photo type_camera settings_date.jpg”, e.g. “robin_left side profile_ISO 400_Jan 5 07.jpg”.
There are several advantages to that type of system:
- Obviously, it gets all your ducks in a row. (Pun intended.)
- It lets you get a real feel for your current collection of existing bird pictures. (Right now, the wife has 36 pictures and one movie of just two owls - in her words, “I think I’ve got enough.”)
- A taxonomy like this lets you quickly catalog all your backyard sightings.
- This arrangement doesn’t require special software.
- Backing up your bird portfolio is just a matter of burning a single set of folders to a CD or DVD.... Once again, there’s no need for special software. And ditto for the restore.
Anyway, Merry Christmas...
See you by the feeders,
Alan
P.S. So what did Santa bring you? Click on the “Comments” button below and let us know!
P.P.S. There is one other advantage to consolidating all your pictures in a logical system... You’ll never know what you’ll find.
