There once was a young boy, who was so upbeat and optimistic and everything, it actually had his parents very concerned.
What would happen to him as he grew up and started to engage with the bleak realities of the real world?
Would he be prepared to deal with the truth of the ups and down of life?
To help him cope, they tried a drastic measure.
Filling his bedroom with horse manure,they lured him there, pushed him in and shut the door locking him in.
Extreme maybe, but they felt it would be for the best.
After a few hours they checked in on him.
But instead of finding him a broken young boy, he was shoveling through the manure by hand and said
” There must be a pony in here somewhere”

Well for one thing, I am that boy. C’mon there was no manure filed room, but I am that optimistic.

Especially when going through the files of photographs taken through the years. There is gold in there. It may be just a personal memory image, or perhaps a solid image to work on and share.
How do you know? How do you find it? How many files do I have that are _DSC0192.NEF ? Or IMG_0004.jpg?

Honestly the only way to sift through the …um… manure is to start out the right way.

Tagging your photos as you import them. Batch name them to start.
Yep, you can do it in iPhoto, Aperture, or our program of choice, Adobe Lightroom.


Sample dialog box in Adobe Lightroom. This opens automatically when you insert your media card.

Each program has tools for you to rename your images. Do it first in groups or batches. It’ll make the seemingly daunting task, much easier. This is true for new imports or files already uploaded.
Use a key word you can honestly remember. Like the event name. “annenberg preview” for instance.
Add a date also, like 04309 for today’s date. I’ve always found that to be very helpful. Events do repeat.
And here’s another tip; When you import your photos for the first time, set up a specially named folder for them all to load into.
So when you look for all of your photos of “annenberg preview”, for instance, all you have to do is go to the “find” or “search” function and you will be rewarded with the images you were looking for.
You can, and should, also retrofit.
Take a little time each day and go through all of your your digital files. Select a group and tag ‘em. In short order, you will have an organized collection.
Make sure the photo software you use has the tools you want and need.
Yeah, the steps are easy. Making tagging them it a habit doesn’t have to be. Actually that’s why I love Lightroom. Once you’ve set your preferences, your workflow starts off on the right foot. Backed-up into the right places, and properly tagged.
It even ejects your card after you upload, if you like. And I like.
Of course we will discuss organizing your negs, contact, transparencies, and prints, another time. And where to hire a good intern to help with that.

Just remember, there is a pony in there, somewhere. You’ll see.