Organize your digital photos

I learned the hard way—when newer computer files overwrote older files with the same name—the importance of labeling my digital photos. Finally, I created a photo filing system that works for me. My pictures are now labeled by date; location or event; and photo number.

For example, 2009-04disney001.jpg means: 2009-04 = April 2009; disney = location or event; 001 = photo number.

I also set up my (PC) computer so that photos are grouped in year folders within the My Pictures folder. If you looked at my computer, under My Documents it looks something like this:

My Pictures (folder)
       2009 (folder)
               2009-04disney001.jpg (file)
               2009-04disney002.jpg (file)
               2009-04disney003.jpg (file)

Recently, I purchased an external hard drive to backup all my computer files. Before the first backup, I took the opportunity to rename all my older photos to fit my new digital file name convention. Renaming the files took time but the effort was worth it. Now I can find my pictures easily and I know when and where each one was taken. It’s also nice to watch a chronological slideshow on the computer.