How to Organize Your Digital Pictures

Digital cameras are great inventions. They let you capture every moment of your life in a way that was not only hard before, but was down right expensive. No more are the days of having to drop off film and pay for it to be developed. Now you can take 100 shots of your one year old eating her first birthday cake and simply download them to your computer to keep and look at whenever you like.

As easy as picture taking has become there are still hurdles to overcome. The biggest of these is what to do with all of those darn pictures. How you organize them really depends on what type of system works best for you. The ideal system is one that lets you find the exact picture you want to view or print in a short amount of time and without having to sort through your entire catalogue.

I've been gathering a collection of pictures since being given my first digital camera as a gift from my husband while we were first dating. Through the years, and two daughters later, I've amassed a large library and keeping it organized is vital. I'll walk you through my personal system and if it works for you feel free to claim it as your own!

Starting in January of each year I begin folders that cover the entire year and are labeled with the year and the month. As I gather pictures each month I label each group by what they are. It may be "New Years Day" in January, "Daughter's birthday party" in April, "Family vacation" in June, "Daughters first day of school" in September, and "Christmas" in December. Even the small events get labeled and downloaded to their month as they happen. I try to clear them out eiter after a big event or at least once a week. But, I take a lot of pictures so use the frequency that makes sense for you.

As I get ready to say goodbye to the year each December 31^st I copy all 12 months to a CD which I label with the year and file into a fireproof box in my home. Those pictures are precious and need to be protected!

Now, I have an easy way to find any picture I am looking for. Say I want to print a picture of the day my youngest was born. No, problem! Being the great mom that I am I clearly remember the year and month and can have the picture loaded onto the computer and ready to print within about 5 minutes. Even events that are not quite as easily recalled are found easier with my system. Family vacations are a great example. Suppose I want the picture of my oldest daughter feeding ducks with her grandmother on the dock of the beach house we rented when she was 2. Even if I don't remember the month I know the year and that it was summer and from there I only have to do a quick search through 3 months before it's found and ready to print and frame.

I hope that you now have a starting point and can bring some order to your own picture madness. Take my advice and get them under control now. You will thank me later when you are looking for that one picture amongst a million.