PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILING INFO

One problem with having a wide variety of interests is that I have a hard time being organized. I get an idea then before I can implement it or get it finished, I am distracted and move onto something else.

This week I am trying to work on my photographs. I put together a series of barn pictures and haven’t reached the point where I feel that project is done. There’s more to do but I’ve moved on to covered bridges. I feel I am losing focus or rather, I am feeling overwhelmed. What about birds and flowers and machinery? When do I get to them?

Somehow, I need organization. I do have my photos in files on an external hard drive but there’s something missing in the information and I cannot quite figure out how to put it all together. I do quite a bit of cropping because I like to get in close to see fine detail and texture but I am discovering that in doing this, care must be taken in the size the photograph is printed. Paper and ink are wasted and time is lost because notes are not taken… could this be what “tags” are used for? Also, by not having complete notes, I end up repeating work or dealing with the same issues.

Better organization will keep me from making those mistakes but is detailed note taking feasible when there are thousands of pictures? Plus, what would be the best way to catalogue the information? I’ve thought about notebooks, a special Photography Journal, or 4x6 file cards with each card dedicated to a particular picture.

Notebooks and journals would run into a problem because the information would be all mish-mashed. Journals usually are recorded by date and if I tried to arrange a notebook… not even sure how that could be set up and how much reading would be done to look back on a subject. File cards might work but as I said, if I have thousands of pictures, would that be a realistic endeavor?

Do other photographers and artists go through this? Do they keep separate files? This, too, might be the difference in being a trained photographer and one who learns by trial and error. I’m still struggling to create that professional look. I suppose, too, that if I had the guts to talk to other photographers I might be able to come up with my own answers.