Logically, you may think, sort your files, then back up what's left. However, I will argue, I wanted to back up everything first, because I get nervous when I start going through my extensive sorting and purging {deleting}, that something could go wrong and something could get lost. And I want that piece of mind right this very moment, that all my two years of un-backed up data, is now safe. I want to have a good sleep tonight. No more worries about losing my most valuable possession {next to my family of course}.
So, I looked into an online service that will automatically back up my files. In fact, I looked at many. And there are a lot of stellar options out there, for around $50 per year, all of your files can be automatically be backed up, multiple times a day, and then easily accessed at any point, while offering the same security you would expect from your online banking. Sounds incredible. Sign me up! But wait, I need to know more....
I currently back up all of my files on our external hard drive. So, I popped over to my external hard drive, to see how much storage I am currently using. Ready for this?
Yikes, I am already using TONS of space... Mostly photos, but some music and documents hang out there as well.... Enter panic attack now.
So this is where it got worse for me. Although some sites charge for how much storage you are backing up, others don't. Unlimited they say. Until you bring an external hard drive into the picture. That's when I heard that awful "wah wah" sound in my head. I have yet to find a service that offers unlimited storage backup of an external hard drive. If you know of one, I would love to hear your suggestions!
Let me just point out now, that I am learning with you this month. I am sharing my adventure in organizing photos, and will love to hear what is working for you, or has worked for you, along the way! I am by no means an expert who already has a fantastic plan in place... and I know there are oodles of different ways to get this done....
So since I am unable to do a quick backup before I get started, my step one is to start filing and purging and back up later.
And knowing the amount of folders and pictures I have, this is absolutely going to take a large chunk of time. Here are my action plans for Step 1:
Map out a plan. Some people use programs pre-built on their computers to organize their photos. I currently don't have one/am not using one, so I am going to do this the old fashion way. The way that any one of you could do if you wish. I sat down and wrote out how I would mostly benefit from this time investment. What is my desired outcome?
My Goal:
- To be able to quickly find a photo at any moment
- To cut down the amount of storage I am using by purging unnecessary photos
- To sleep better because I know my photos are safe
- To create a system that is easy to maintain going forward
By Year -> By Month
I also will be creating two sub folders in each annual folder, one for vacations, one for special events {weddings, parties, etc..}, because I tend to take many more photos for those occasions and want to be able to find them even quicker.
For my organizing blog, I also take quite a few pictures. So for that, I would like to see it organized by post, so I can always go back and re-use pictures vs. take new ones.
Posts -> Post Title
For daycare, I take pictures for the parents and then upload them to a photo printing site to share them. I will continue to organize their photos just as I do for my family photos, only within their own folder.
By Year -> By Month
Create Folders. Now that I know the format I wanted, I decided to create folders for last year and this year, by month. Why only two years back? The rest of my photos had already been organized, not using my new method however. They were all organized within categories and folders within each category. Because so many categories can mix and cross, sorting became a nightmare and I still can't find a lot of the photos right away, I have to dig. I may go back some day and re-organize the already organized photos, but until then, they will remain as is.
By placing the numbers in front of the months, they remain in sorted order.
Now, if you have your settings on your camera right, you can always look at the history of an image to see when it was taken. This is a life saver for me when it comes to this moment. Just right click the photo image and select 'Properties'. You should see this info:
If you don't have your camera's date set up, it's a good idea to do it now for help in the future.
Sort. Now that I have a method and folders in place, I can start the sorting. Because I was somewhat good at dumping all of my pictures into some sort of folder already, I will just take it folder at a time. I set up the screen to have both windows open. The folder that I am pulling from on the left, the new folder on the right.
As you can see, the one January folder that I am pulling from, has 302 photos. {yes, embarrassing, but we are doing this together right?}
All January photos go into my new January folder.
Because I am still learning my camera, and because i have the luxury of digital, I take a thousand pictures of the kiddos, to ensure that I get a bunch that I love. But I take too many, with intentions of deleting, and then I don't delete. Next step is...
Delete. Time to start viewing each picture and hitting that Delete button on any duplicates, fuzzies, blurries, eyes closed or unnecessary photos. Just like any organizing task, purging is always the hardest part {yet, offers the most reward}. By purging out the bad, you will be more likely to print or retrieve the good. I vow to only keep the photos that capture a special moment, serve a purpose to my photography learnings and blogs, or would be printed in the future. Goodbye to the rest.
Deleting all of my excess January photos took me about 15-20 minutes. I toggled between similar ones to pick my favs. I cringed hitting delete a couple of times. But when I was done, I had cut down my folder from 487 to 116!!
Yep, I cut my total storage by 371 photos. Enter sigh of relief! Feels good. I am shedding out the excess, keeping what I adore. And still have at least one or two pictures of every moment I captured throughout the month!
Many of you wondered what I do with my edited photos. Well, I keep the original and edited version. I have created one folder for each month that includes my "edits". I do this for a couple of reasons. When I go to make prints, I will probably pick my favorite edited photos. However, my editing styles change as I learn, and I would always want to ensure I could snag an original copy and re-edit it to my liking if I choose. So I am at the moment, keeping both.
One folder down, a trillion to go!
After all that deleting, I went back to view my external hard drives stats on more time...
I gained a whole GB of free space. From organizing one folder! It almost feels as good as realizing I lost three pounds. Only I lost 1 GB. Sweet!
Rename. Because I know I can perform a "Search" on my external hard drive, I decide to rename all of my photos with the month. I could go through and rename each photo with it's specific contents, but I don't have the time on hand to do that. Plus, I do that when I edit the photos, so all of my edited photos have a special name.
To rename the rest of the files in the folder {the originals}, I selected all of the pictures {Ctrl+A}. I right clicked, selected 'Rename', and entered in the month_year format {01_2011}. Because I selected all, they are all renamed with the format.
Schedule time to sort. Now that I know how much time one folder takes, I know how much time I will need to get everything in order. I want to accomplish it all by the end of the month. Thank goodness it's snowy and cold outside, and I won't have reserves about spending a couple of hours after the kiddos are in bed, or while they play with their dad, to work on sorting. In fact, I worked it out with him and scheduled a couple of different time slots in my planner to get much of the work done this weekend.
I have to apologize. This was probably one of the most confusing and challenging posts to write. Writing as I go versus having an existing working system already in place, is a little out of my comfort zone.
Because I am only getting started in this, if there are better and easier ways working for you, please take a moment to share. It will not only help me, but the many others that are excited and pledging to work on this challenge this month! Anyone already get started and have some progress to share? What's working for you?
I decided a little challenge would be fun! This month we are getting all those pictures in order! Wanna join? Take photos and blog about your awesomeness as you go! I am hoping to do a giant, "We did it!" celebratory post where we can all link up our picture organizing success stories at the end of the month!
0 comments:
Post a Comment