Friday, July 10, 2009

The Hardest Part is Over

About a month ago, I set a goal to scan my entire photo collection. I am finally finished. What a relief! And what a chore! I almost wish I was one of those people who start things and never seem to finish. I am definitely NOT in that category. If I start a project, whether work or personal, it becomes a race to see it through to the end. I literally cannot rest knowing I have an unfinished project.

I had some name-saving issues along the way, but managed to figure out short-term, if not permanent solutions to get me through. For instance, I began saving photos into existing folders on my hard drive, but when the files started growing in number, I was encountering duplications, even when adding the year. Adding numbers or letters - i.e., 1, 2, 3 or a, b, c - behind the year or name didn't offer enough of a distinction and didn't look good, either. Another problem was having too many people in a picture. Having a file name like "joe_celina_gail_ray_betty_joanne_1968" was way too long of a file name, and added to that there was the dilemma of which folder to save it in. This forced me to create folders for events like, "Christmas 1968" or "Acaldo Family-Misc". That way, I could just keep the file name given by the scanner and go back later to add detailed descriptions. Basically, it just delayed the file naming chore, which I will address...at some point.

Thus, the project continues, but the most tedious part is over.

I still can't decide if I should have the year first, then the primary person's name or event, or the person's name or event and then the year. There is still a lot to go back and perfect, but at least they're all scanned, which was the most time-consuming element. Whew! Glad that part is over. Yay me!

A small sampling:





6 comments:

Mickey said...

LOVE those Yea Me Moments!!!
What a job!!! And always love the pics!

Gail Dixon said...

Thanks, Mickey!

Autumn said...

Ooh la la, what a babe! :)

I can't wait to look at some of these photos. I'll see if I have any lying around from dad's that I can scan and send to you!

Gail Dixon said...

I assume you're ooh la la-ing over my halter top photo? It's nice to see that I did have a bod back in the day. :)

That would be great if you have more photos. I am missing a chunk of Michael's birthdays which makes me sad.

I think I will post them on Flickr and make them private. I'll let you know when they're up!

Jay said...

I saw that halter top photo and thought that must be a picture of Autumn, and fairly recent. Then I saw the file name when I moused over.

Dayum! :)

Great job on getting them all scanned in!

My Mom is about to embark on this project in the near future, if I can ever remember to set up her scanner :) I know back in the day I collected all the boxes and albums of photos and convinced myself I'd scan them all in.

I never even got started.

The mountain was too daunting.

But when Mom gets started, I'll definitely help out with the workload as much as I can, too.

Gail Dixon said...

You're a good son, Jay. I commend anyone for taking on this project. The drudgery of it is not fun, but it's also going through and recalling fond memories which is a good thing.