Alright, let me tell you about this whole thing. It started as a simple idea, really. I thought, “I’m gonna get all my digital photos organized. Finally.” You know how it is, years and years of pictures, just dumped into folders, a complete mess. My so-called “practice” was supposed to be straightforward.
The Grand Plan (That Wasn’t So Grand)
So, the first step, I figured, was to gather everything. Old hard drives, USB sticks, stuff from my phone, cloud backups I’d forgotten about. Man, that took days. I felt like an archaeologist digging through digital ruins. I found pictures I didn’t even remember taking! Some good, some… well, let’s just say some were best left forgotten.
Then came the “sorting” phase. I tried to be smart about it. Folders by year? By event? By person? I started with years, seemed logical. 2010, 2011, and so on. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. What about photos that spanned New Year’s? Or a trip that started in December and ended in January? Already, my simple system was showing cracks.
Into the Weeds
I pushed on. I decided events were better. “Summer Vacation 2012,” “Dave’s Wedding,” “That Time I Tried to Bake Bread.” This worked for a bit, but then you get those random photos. A picture of a weird cloud. A screenshot of something funny. Where do THOSE go? I ended up with a massive “Miscellaneous” folder, which, let’s be honest, is just another word for “I give up.”
And don’t even get me started on duplicates. Duplicates everywhere! Same picture, slightly different file name. Same picture, different resolution. I downloaded some software that was supposed to find duplicates. It found thousands. And then it wanted me to manually review each one. I spent a whole evening just clicking “delete” or “keep,” and I barely made a dent. My eyes were burning.
- Attempt 1: Sort by year. Failed.
- Attempt 2: Sort by event. Partially worked, created other problems.
- Attempt 3: Use duplicate finder software. Overwhelmed me.
The “System” Today
So, where am I now with this grand “practice” of photo organization? Well, it’s still a mess, but it’s a slightly more categorized mess. I have some main year folders, and inside those, some event folders. And yes, the “Miscellaneous” folder is still there, and it’s probably grown. Sometimes I think about tackling it again, maybe with face recognition software, or tags, or some other fancy new method.
But honestly, most days I just search by date if I’m looking for something specific and hope for the best. It’s not the perfect system I dreamed of. It’s more like a pile of stuff where I generally know where some things are. Maybe that’s just how these things go. You start with a clear path, and then life, and thousands of random photos, just sort of happen. It’s an ongoing practice, I guess, more about the trying than the ever actually finishing.
