Photo Organization Might Not Be For Amateurs!

I have a travel page on Pinterest.  In case you are interested in checking it out, here's a link.  I'll try to place it strategically throughout this post so that you won't have to move that mouse around too much.  I know how troublesome that can become.... (Insert eye roll here.)  The reason I bring it up is because a few weeks ago I started a board called Beaches but then I never added any photos or anything to it.  I knew in my mind that I wanted boards on this Pinterest page called Boats, Beaches, Bars and Ballads (in addition to many others) because you know that's the name of the Jimmy Buffett boxed set from many years ago and I think it sort of relates to my travel style. Ballads hasn't been set up yet.  But Boats and Bars have been going for a while, because let's face it, a girl's got to know her priorities and have them in line.

So anyway, I had this Beaches board but I had no photos on it.  Then yesterday, during a lull in the travel business (ok, I admit it, I only talked to two clients yesterday) I decided to start posting some beach photos from my travels.  But here's the deal, I put one of those new Pinterest maps on this board which I haven't done in the past. But it seemed like the right thing to do with the board being travel related and all.  But, I guess when you have the map there, you have to choose a location first.  Then you can choose your pin. Normally, I just browse through pictures I've taken and find one that has good memories or that I like the composition of or something and then I Pin it.  I don't plan ahead like that.  I've never been that much of a planner (which I'm sure would make the people at the former employer who shall not be named twitch a little since Planner was in my job title for about the last 7 years I was there) and I'm not sure that I can change that at my age for the sake of Pinterest.  I mean, we all know, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, right?

So anyway, yesterday after about 30 minutes of consideration and contemplation, I finally got one "Beach" photo Pinned.  And here's the thing....  I really don't even know if I consider it a Beach photo.  I really consider it a Sunset photo.  It should be limited to spending space on my Sunset board, which if I'm not mistaken it already does!  Take a look at the photo in question and you be the judge.

Sunset in Sitges, Spain

Sure, if you try you can see just a little bit of beach off to the right there.  But beach is not the subject of the photo, the sunset is.  The sailboats in the harbor are a much larger part of the picture than the beach.  This wasn't even the picture that I had in mind when I typed Sitges, Spain into the field on Pinterest.  I was thinking of a photo that my travel buddy, Jenny took of me on the beach in Sitges.  You see it was cold. It was November and although it was the greatest trip ever, there were a few moments during the trip when we both wished we could be there during the height of the Mediterraneans tourist season so that we could spend time on the beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean.  So on this particular evening in Sitges, we ran down to the beach right after this photo was taken from the steps of the church and took our shoes off and walked around in the sand so that we could say we had.  The temperature was in the 50's and all the people who were on the tour with us thought we were crazy. I know they did, because they kept talking about us.  While we were on the beach we could hear them off in the distance saying something like "Is that the Texas girls??!?!?!  They have their shoes off!!!!"  But it was something that we had to do and I'm glad we did.

The problem that I face when it comes to finding specific photos that I have in mind is that I have 11 flashdrives of photos (probably 60 or 70 gigs) not to mention all the photos I have just randomly filed on my computer and backed up on CD's (God only knows where) that I didn't plan out too well when I saved them. (Once again that planning issue comes into play.)  The ones on the computer are filed by date.  So it is fairly easy to find them. But the ones I don't have saved on the computer and only have on flashdrives are a little bit of a challenge. There is absolutely no organization to that madness.  Here's the other issue.  When Jenny and I travel together, sometimes she gets a photo and I take a photo of something else.  We both know that the other has a photo that we will need a copy of but it isn't necessary for each of us to go photograph what the other already got.  So, at the end of the trip, we exchange photos.  Those photos are all stored on flashdrives for me.  Then I just piggy back onto those flashdrives.  So, I might have a flashdrive that has photos Jenny took in Europe along with photos I took three years later in Hawaii.  These are those little memory sticks.  There is no room for labeling the 32 subjects that are contained on that 8 gig stick so, I just try to remember that the cute little flowered stick has Key West on it and the tiny little blue one has Seattle and so on.  If I'm looking for one individual picture taken by Jenny 5 years ago, it could take me a week to find it because although it was taken in Europe, it is on the flashdrive that my RCI cruise from last January pictures are on.  See my problem?

I know that I could sit down with several empty memory sticks and totally get this mess organized if I had the patience and 2 or 3 months of complete solitude.  But I have neither.  So, today rather than making file labels for new clients and copying travel documents to mail all day, maybe I'll take a few hours this afternoon and go through memory sticks noting the locations of photos that I want to post so that I can just hit this thing from a different angle.  Yep, I think that's the ticket!

Have a great Tuesday!  I have a very exciting Globus webinar today, then I just might spend a little bit of time looking for beach photos.  Don't forget to take a look at my Pinterest Boards and Follow me if you are so inclined.