Organizing Digital Images for a Happier You

I used to be very attached to 35mm film. While I miss the convenience of the photo lab doing all the color adjustments, I have accepted that having all my photos available in digital format is worth the trade-off.

As soon as I get home from any shutterbug adventure (big or small), I get right to copying the images over to my computer. What works well for me is to label the folders in the following format:

2007.10.31 Halloween - Jill's House

I label the date in this format so that when I sort my folders by date, the folders appear in chronological order. (Be sure to add a "0" before the single digit months because some systems will file "10" before "7"; using "07" will eliminate the potential issue.) And of course, attaching a short description is very useful for future reference.

With this filing method, it becomes very easy to create "Year in Review" photo books with an online site like Shutterfly, Kodak Photo Gallery, or Snapfish for a collection of all the events that happened over the course of the year.

Organize as you photograph and you'll thank yourself when you're looking for those precious images years from now.