Sorting Photographs

I’ve set myself a task to complete by the New Year. Since January 1 of 2000, I’ve been dumping downloading all of my photos onto my computer. For every blog post photograph that you see, I’ve taken another twenty photos that don’t get used. I’ve left them in my files and moved on. A month ago I tried to go back to find an image and it was a daunting task. There were 50,000 pictures stored in Photos! It’s become impossible to go through the files and find a good photograph. It was time to sort, discard, and organize. I’ve been tackling this task bit by bit and I’m down to fifteen thousand images. If I cut that number by half, and then slot them all into albums, my task will be complete.

Some of this winnowing is easy. I’ve got a zillion photos of tomatoes, frogs and compost in various states of decomposing, that can be tossed into the virtual garbage can with nary a second thought. But there are other series of images that slow me down.

Here is Scooter the day that we met. He was only six weeks old, and still in his foster home with his brother, sister and Mom. Scooter is the pup in the back to the left of the basket.

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It’s not hard to imagine Scooter that little – although he weighed less than four pounds back then, he looks remarkably similar now. On the other hand, Pip and Caper were tiny, svelte and agile babies. Their breeder sent me this photograph when they were only six weeks old. They both fit in a feed tub. When they arrived here they weighed ten pounds each. They’re up to a hundred now, with prominent bellies and sporting long beards.

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This is Lily the first day that I met her. She was six months old. She’d been digging. Her muzzle is now grey, but she still gets it dirty snuffling in the ground.

Lily at rescue

 

I tried to find a photo of the Beast as a 3-inch fish, but I don’t think that I snapped one! If I come across one, I’ll post it. It’s good to look back before looking forward to the New Year.

Comments:

  1. Oh, the goat boys were so cute!!!

    I have pics on paper as well as on the computer and who knows when I’ll get through them all! :D I do know one thing, however, I’ll be putting them on CD’s. I’ve got a shoot ton on a flash drive right now from a trashed computer. A lucky last chance save by my IT guy. It made me realize just how easy it would be to lose them if they aren’t backed up off site. *shakes head*

  2. have top say I’ve lost many photos on computers, Still prefer the old photographs in my hand. Technology and me do not get along too well.

  3. Beautiful pic’s Terry. Judy I am with you Tech and I are not good bed fellows.
    Happy Christmas Terry and family and to all blog readers.
    Please say a big thankyou to Steve IT guy for keeping cams going for another year…:)

  4. You sound like me!! I’m always trying to organize my photos. Beautiful pics by the way. Scooter and the goats are so cute!! (They still are :D )

  5. I LOVE all of these pics Terry! There is nothing sweeter then babies, is there? I have also lost many pics on the computer over the years. I try not to let myself get too upset about the losses though. There is only so much time to view all that history and the important stuff (most of it), is still stored away in my memory bank. It is a treat though to find old treasures like those you shared with us all today. All the best to you and all your family. May you make lots more memories together!!

  6. Oh, they all were so adorable as babies! Thank you for sharing these photos…definitely keepers!

  7. Nothing better than a stroll down memory lane! That little pup with the curly coat is so pretty, as is your Scooter. The widdle baby goaties are so cute. Who could resist them :-)
    Wishing you, your family and all the critters a very Merry Christmas!

  8. I think all your animals are great in their own unique way, but have a special soft spot for Lily. Thanks for sharing her “puppy” pic.
    Wishing you and yours all the best of the season!

  9. Pip and Caper melt my heart every time. They were grown when I found HenCam. By the way I just saw a FB post from Chicken Chat about nursing homes in Australia giving residents hens as pets. Although it appears that the hens spend some time inside which is not optimal, the benefits to the resident are great. Your idea is really taking seed. Enjoy your weeding out.

  10. I often take several of each shot. I then winnow out the duds and delete the rest. But I long ago started and consistently use a filing system for photos: first by subject, then by year, ie House & Grounds, 2015. Sometimes if there’s a lot of one item I’ll make a sub folder, House & Grounds, 2015, Smokehouse.

    I have an area I put new photos that may need editing. Every so often I go through and clean it out and file everything to be kept. Every photo to be kept is labeled. If plants, then what garden, what’s in it, and month/year.

    I simply don’t have time or energy to be searching for pictures I need for something. I was curious what was in my Pam’s Pics folder and currently it stands at 56,626 files and 2371 folders. Wow! I would have guessed at under 20K. LOL

  11. I am the same in that, for every photo that goes on my blog, another twenty won’t be used. That does make for a lot of photos. I need to do some sorting out too but it is such a mammoth task. I could pick Scooter out as he hasn’t really changed that much but the goats as babies, they have grown so much. I remember reading about them when you first got them but had forgotten how small they were. All the photos are adorable.

  12. Terry, I have the same problem (only on a smaller scale!)
    I can see the image in my mind, and I can remember taking the picture, and then “dumping” it into the computer, even touching it up in Photoshop…and months/years later, I can’t find the darn thing! And I keep all of them on the same hard-drive, in chronological order, and I highlight the ones that are most impressive. (I can’t find it in my heart to delete the “duds”)

    I worry that computer files are too easily lost or corrupted…it’s true that the best way to preserve a photo is to have an old-fashioned print made!