Organisation, Youtube, Printing & Location Guides
How exciting is that for a title?!
Sometimes it feels like there hasn’t been much movement for my photography, then I realise that I’m only human, have a whole work/life balance thing to figure out, spend time with the family, and study in most of my spare time, and that I shouldn’t be so hard on myself really. There have been some great days out and many a photo has been taken - they’re just in the machine waiting to be processed.
Whilst procrastinating, I felt that my file organisation needed some security and clarity, to get through the backlog, keep up to date, and generally be one less thing to worry about for now. I have got a hybrid workflow between 2 machines, my home PC and the laptop I take with me when I work away. Recently, I have edited more when working away, finding the odd hour to get on it, so this makes sense; however, when coming back to the PC (big screens and super fast speeds rule), I then had slightly confusing steps to make sure duplicates weren’t a thing and that catalogues were exported, transferred, imported, etc.
Enter the Samsung T7 2TB!
After some research, the idea was to hold my LRC catalogue in one place, on the SSD, which can then travel between machines seamlessly, and build in some redundancy with backups. Great plan, just needed 1 cohesive LRC catalogue to get this plan into action. After a long time verifying the latest versions of files and sets, I had it, the one catalogue to rule them all, with all my sets organised into different collections (where appropriate/imported into LRC) and the remaining files that aren’t yet imported, in the same sensible folder structure, ready for culling/importing when required.
My folder structure is relatively simple. Drive\Photographs\2025\(reverse date)-(Type of shoot street/landscape etc)-(Location or relevant description). These then hold 4 folders:
These then hold 4 folders:
Deselects
Selects
Lightroom
Exports
So, all that’s left now is to copy them over to the new SSD, and relink in LRC from the parent folder, and all is good. Best watch another YouTube video on this just to make sure, because, just in case. No, pretty clear, just do it inside LRC and even fewer linkage issues, fantastic. So I committed to the action, pulled all my files, and copied them over. With no backup, because meh, video says it’s fine, it’ll be fine, just a simple move. Imagine my horror when I find folders are MISSING from the new location?! Frantic internet searches couldn’t answer the query, and CTRL+Z wasn’t an option either.
From what I can tell, and I will be honest, I don’t really know how to verify this without the backup I should have had! (hindsight, eh…), I think only empty folders were deleted. I’m not sure about this, but it does appear that anything I have been looking for has been found in the place it should be. A part of me thinks there aren’t any little movie files saved anywhere, though, which may or may not have been there before. However, I was experimenting with short clips in the field on one or two, and now I can't find those. What a way to put all your eggs in one basket! With this in mind, I have learned a very valuable lesson (that I already secretly knew): don’t do anything stupid just because a YouTube video says it’s fine, or at least, not without a full backup for recovery on the off-chance things go missing.
Backups
For those interested, my backups are currently managed manually (automated will happen when I have had time to research/experiment) and will be a basis of the original copy on the SSD, a backup on the home PC HDD, and another backup on my NAS. For ultimate security, I am liable to have a cloud backup attached to one of the others for insurance. Whilst I don’t have a commercial interest in this level of redundancy, if I ever did, it’s already set up, but for now, it’s a peace of mind that my memories are as safe as I can make them, whilst maintaining the portability I need at this time.
In the spirit of maintaining a level of control and peak organisation, I now have a spreadsheet tracking my photo sets, numbers, location, and progress through the workflow. I like to cull in Bridge currently (although for bracketed images, I think culling in LRC might be better), then import to LRC. This keeps any ratings applied, and generally is a little faster in my experience. The spreadsheet is a nice one-stop to see where I am with the backlog, as well as a tracker for any posts to socials, etc, too.
Currently, I am watching a few YouTube videos of techniques and skills, like I have done from the beginning, really, trying to fill gaps in knowledge that, with some hope, I will remember when out in the field; however, I am starting to think that it’s not as productive as I hoped it would be. Less instructional, more content absorption, and whilst there may be relevant tips to absorb, and I may actually remember them when it matters, I can’t help but feel that with a little more research, I could structure my learning and have clear objectives when I do go out. At the moment, I may get out once a week with the camera, which, for serious improvement, isn’t enough, and a little and often approach may be more suitable. With that, I have no set routine to fit it around, and a lack of goals. This will need to be revisited, and if resolved, I believe a good sense of achievement will come of it, but for now, YouTube is more of a content diversion than the tool I wanted it to be.
Canon Selphy CP1500
Printing. So, instead of concentrating on developing my skills like composition, exposure, planning dedicated trips, gear restrictions (to better understand limitations, etc), I have bought a printer, the Canon Selphy CP1500 in fact, because I needed more gadgets and distractions. This is the result of a want to see my work displayed, in print, somewhere, ideally around my desk at home or work, maybe even other places in the house (consensus permitting), or for gifts or something, I’m not sure, but I know I wanted it.
It’s early days yet, literally 2 prints in, first was a joke (no options in LRC to customise properties, so it thought it was printing to letter size in greyscale, and I wanted 100x148mm and colour. I did, however, resolve this for the time being and printed from my phone instead. The result was good! Not amazing, but then I didn’t have high hopes in the first instance, it’s not sold as a colour/detail accurate archiving machine, it’s more of a fun let’s see your snaps kind of thing, like the old days, I reckon, with modern convenience.
There is an exercise to be had with experimentation, maybe editing photos just for the printer, maybe even applying a preset or similar, once I have figured out the required changes, to get the best out of it. another project, but, for now, one that isn’t too serious, until it is, and I start looking at the real printers…
Finally, for this update, I have bought a few Photography Guides to different locations, which will shortly be listed on my gear page. These are an attempt to narrow down future dedicated photo walks, give some inspiration on known and unknown parts of the country, with a focus on building my Landscape photography skills. The books cover places like the Peak District and West Midlands, North Wales, The Lake District, and one for London too (as I’m there most weeks). I have also got a copy of the Lake District 214 Wainwright Challenge Book. There is the start of an idea to use this to bag all the Wainwrights, in combination with photography walks, and it could produce a great deal of inspiration. This idea can be returned to over the years to come, and if photography isn’t the driver, then it is still a very viable inspiration for our future hikes in the area.
I think that is about it for the back office updates. I do have some interesting photos lined up for editing, so I look forward to getting those out in the open soon enough.
