Keeping records.

[Danny Davies]

Hello members.
I need some help, I take many photographs of insects every day, and when I particular insect, I have to go through hundreds of photo's in many folders, can anyone member help me resolve this.
Thanks Danny.

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Danny, and welcome to WAB!

I'm not sure I follow. Are you asking for suggestions in trying to arrange, or find photographs of particular species of insect in amongst dozens of folders?

If so, try categorising by type - a Hymenoptera (Order: Bees, Wasps, Ants and Sawflies - for example) folder containing folders arranged internally by super-family, family, then sub-family which will contain species. Name each photo by species-name so you can run a hard-drive search for them, too.

Others here have more experience in co-ordinating digital albums than I, and will offer their suggestions I'm sure.

Take care,

Jason

[JRsbugs]

Hi Danny,

I take heaps of photos, so I have learnt the best way to do it for me at least. It might be a problem when you don't have a name and can't find one, then you could use a numbering system within a folder for those along with named insects but I usually just leave them with the original camera number which starts with a 'D' so I know where they are anyway.

I order my photos by year, at the moment I'm too busy taking, editing and naming photos to move them into their own folders but that will get done at the end of the season when winter comes along. I have a lot of folders!

So... create a new folder in your 'pictures' and name it 2011 for this year. Within that folder, create a new folder for each type of insect you want to sort the pics under. I have several, Ants, Bugs, Bees, Bumblebees, Beetles, Dragonflies, Birds, Butterflies, Moths, Flies, Syrphid Flies, Spiders, Miscellaneous (for things that don't fit elsewhere), Springtails, Barkflies, Wasps, Chalcid Wasps, Plants and I even have a folder for Harvestmen but you could include those with Spiders if wished, and sawflies with Wasps which is what I do.

Then you need to select the photos from each folder to move them to the correct folder. I do that by clicking on each pic I want to move while holding down the 'Ctrl' key, you can click on one for a start then hold the key down to do the rest. When you have selected all the pics to move from one folder then let go of the Ctrl, right click on one of the selected pics then select 'Cut'. Go to the folder you are moving them to, right click on a space but not on a pic then select 'Paste'. Your photos should then appear, often at the bottom of other pics until you go out of the folder but they will align themselves alphabetically when you go back or will do once you click on any pic anyway. Having them already named before you move them is a good idea then it will be easy to find them alphabetically.

Once you have moved all pics from a folder you can then delete that folder.

Janet.

[Danny Davies]

Hi Jason and Janet.

Thank's to the both of you.

Jason I did mean my photo's in my folders, people do tell me that I do get mixed up at times, thank you for giving me the help asked for.

Janet, Thank you for your help will be copying your method, yes your right I only know a very very small number of the insects I photograph. and I am told there are 20,000 in Britain, that's enough for me.

Thank you both, Danny.

[Jason Green]

...around 27,000, actually.