What is the problem with organizing digital pictures?

This article is part of the tutorial called: Understand the Issues.
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Symptoms always appear because of a root cause. No doctor would want to treat the symptoms but rather any doctor will try finding and treating the root cause. If you treat the symptoms you will never cure the disease and the symptoms will reappear. Many people are overwhelmed when they realize that they cannot find their pictures on their computers. They love their digital cameras but can’t seem to get them organized so that they would be able to find the pictures they’re looking for. The is only a symptom that has a root cause. This article will explain the root case of the picture organization problem.

The fundamental problem with organizing digital pictures is quantity.

The problem with organizing digital pictures is simple to explain but hard to solve. The problem is quantity…there are just too many pictures that we can take with a digital camera. It’s not bad that we can take many pictures…it is actually great…as a matter of fact this is the greatest thing about digital cameras. The only problem is that we have to organize them. If we don’t, then we will show all the symptoms that come with this problem: frustration and disappointment.

A simple example.

John and Mary have been married for many years and they have a twelve years old daughter named Carly and a five years old boy named Michael. Carly plays basketball, and John, her father coaches her team. John and Mary decided to buy a digital camera so that they can take pictures of all the games for Carly but also for other events in their family.

John is also a manager at a local company and would like to take pictures at company events, while Mary would like to take pictures of church events the family participates in. John and Mary have some close friends that they would like to be able to exchange pictures with. So, they bought a digital camera; one that can shoot videos as well. After having the camera for a few months, and figuring out how to download pictures to their computer, they’re really enjoying the experience and the savings and they’re really proud of their investment.

However, they are not putting much effort in trying to organize their pictures for the long run; they’re only focusing to get some organization for now. This will work for now while their short term memory will serve them for remembering what their folders contain. However, next year they will find it very hard to remember where their pictures are and what each folder contains. Why will this happen? They will have a very hard time remembering simply because there are too many pictures and the folder names are not descriptive enough.

What is the problem ?

John and Mary’s main problem is very simple in essence, but hard to solve. Simply put: there are too many pictures to deal with. Like most new digital camera users, John and Mary are not prepared to deal with this avalanche of pictures. In the past, they used to finish one roll of film in two or three months unless they had an important event when they would should one roll of film, maybe two at the most. But now, with their camera they can easily shoot 200 pictures at one of their daughter’s basketball games…this is almost 10 rolls of film! Consider some of their mistakes listed below and then read about the simplest and most efficient way to organize your pictures.

John & Mary’s mistakes:

• No consistency in naming the folders
• Folder names do not provide enough information about their contents
• Folder names do not include a specific date for their contents
• Many pictures are just “floating” having no parent folder
• No indication as to which pictures belong to which family member
• No separation between family pictures and pictures taken at church or John’s work

Camera salesmen and manufactures don’t help either.

This article is part of the tutorial called: Understand the Issues.
|| Next lesson >>
When was the last time when a camera salesman tried to give you some direction about organizing your pictures after buying that hot new digital camera? Do they every ask you if you know how to do that? They never do. Their goal is to sell the camera and yes they try to help you choose the right one for you…but that’s it.

In addition the camera manuals are very detailed when in comes to operating the camera but contain little to no information when it comes to organizing your pictures once you download them from the camera. Without a plan all the excitement of a new camera will turn quickly into the known symptoms: frustration and disappointment. Click here for a simple but efficient folder based solution: the simplest and most efficient way to organize your pictures.

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