Photo workflow I


How does one tackle one’s photographic archive, which one has not kept on top of? One pretends it’s all done and never really finds a method that suits one. One also goes off on one, speaking in the third person so as to detach oneself from one’s photographic chaos. Or... one gives oneself a goal!

One of my goals for June is to create a photo workflow which makes me happy. A good start to this seemingly overwhelming task is to look at what I already have and see what works and what doesn't. 

Looking at my photo chaos, I can clearly identify two problems:

Archiving.
I have been wanting to create a photo archiving system which works for me pretty much since the minute I started taking digital photos. My original system, which largely still stands, was to create a year folder with several sub-folders, numbered in chronological appearance. At the end of the year, I end up with a year folder which has over a hundred sub-folders with a brief description of what’s there. In 2011 I was really into “morning walks” and “wandering around”. Clearly not the most practical photo keeping method when one wants some sense of cohesion to one’s archive (ie all my morning walks in 2011).

Backlog.
This year, I am doing Project Life weekly. This means ALL my photos get looked at fairly quickly which is the BEST way to do it. Previous years are a different story. I have folders and folders of chronologically organised events filled with photos that I have not even looked at. Fear! Not only is there a lack of archiving system, but there are also loads of photos to sort through.

Now that the problems have been identified and clearly labelled, I can have a cup of chamomile tea and a slice of warm bread while I think on how to solve them. I will be writing about my solution later in the week. 

Do you also have this problem? Or have you been blessed with an eureka moment at the right time and now have the perfect system AND are on top of your photos? If you already have a system you’re happy with, please share in the comments, I’d love to know what other people do and what works for them.

3 comments:

  1. Have you tried adding a few more hours to your day? :-P

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  2. for the last years, I have a yearly folder (same as you used to have), inside month, and place or occassion if it was one of those days where I took many photos. never thought about changing that, because I more or less remember the month where I took a photo I'm trying to find.
    but I also have a folder called gallery with my favourite photos per topic: macro, beach, uk, and so on. Maybe some day I'll change it all

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  3. Can't wait to read what advice your audience will give here, as I am in quite the same situation :)

    ReplyDelete

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