More Backyard Scenes, Pre-Winter

 Flowering Crab

Tuesday night:

I'm scheduling this post because I won't be here tomorrow. We're going to be picking up our Texas daughter from the airport to spend a few days with us. Although I wish the kids lived closer, at least we see them a few times a year. It could be worse. They have no more desire to move back to Wisconsin than we do to move to Texas, so I guess the remedy is to travel. It's definitely worth it.

I have no idea why I'm writing this post. I should be in bed instead. It's been one of those days when all the things I tried to get done sort of failed in the execution, but took a lot of effort and time doing so, and now I'm too tired to do anything else but sit here and go through my photos. I feel too tired to get up and go to bed, and one photo leads to another...

And while I'm on that topic (the photos), let me say that it's really worth spending the $60/year to get Carbonite online backup (no they didn't ask or pay me to write this, but it would be nice if they sent me a couple Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Hazelnut bars for giving them this plug!)  My old laptop did crash, and if it hadn't been for Carbonite, I'd have lost everything. It was EASY to retrieve all my files once I had my new laptop. EASY. So, anyway, since that experience, I am probably paranoid about losing my photos, so they're backed up by an external hard drive also. 

Cattle-less Barn

For what it's worth, here's how I organize them. (Not that anyone cares, but like I said, I'm too tired to go to bed.) When I take a group of photos, I immediately upload them to my computer and put them in a folder that is named for the month in which they are taken. That means I have a folder named October 2013, one named November 2013, one named December 2013, etc. So all the original photos are in the 'monthly' folders. When I edit a photo, I then save it with some particular name (trying to think of what I would call it if I were looking for it!!! - not always easy, believe me.)

 Frosted Spruce

I used to save edited photos by topic, so that I still have a  folder named, 'Barns,' one named 'Pets,' etc.etc. But it occurred to me one day that since I have a really good search tool in Windows 7, I can edit a photo, give it its particular name, and save it (along with the original) in the monthly folder. That way, when I download them to my external hard drive, I only need to download the newest monthly folder. All my originals for that month and the edited versions are in that folder. I do that late in the day on the last day of the month.

 For example, if I took a photo of Misty in December, the edited version might have a name like, 'Misty with blankie December 2013) I include the name of the month so that if I ever want to find the original, I can easily see that it's in the December 2013 folder. So now all the photos I take in December, including the edited versions, will go into the December 2013 folder. Then, at the end of each month, I drag out the external hard drive and download only that monthly folder (because it has both the originals and the edited versions) into it - and I'm current. That makes it a lot easier than having to download every 'topic' folder that might (or might not) have a newly edited photo in it.

 'Closed for the Season'

So now, when I want a photo of a barn, I can go to my main 'Pictures' file and search for the word 'barn.' Every photo - in any folder-  that's got the word 'barn' in the file name, will show up. Also, that file name will tell me in which month folder I can also find the original.

 Sunset Behind the Barn

The only problem is that with a photo like the one above, I might have it named 'sunset barn silo winter December 2013.' But at least I find it. On the other hand, because I didn't include the word 'birdfeeder,' I'll never find that again, unless by accident. And I don't need to include the word 'snow,' because I'd say that there's more than a 50/50 chance that the photo will include snow. After all, this is Wisconsin.

 Sunset Behind the Barn b

 Early Sunset Reflections

Early Sunset Reflections b

I think this photo perusing, editing and saving can quickly become a compulsive behavior!
What do you think? And do you have your photos backed up?

Have a great Wednesday!

***

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