Organizing photos has truly been a never-ending project.

As someone who snaps hundreds of thousands of photos on a weekly, if not daily, basis, it has taken literally zero time to get completely out of control and overwhelming. At some point last year, I realized I was spending way too much time trying to find photos and feeling completely overwhelmed and buried in photos. While I’m no where near being completely organized in the photogpraphy department, here are the steps I’ve been taking in that direction.

The Delete Rules //

If the photos are from a now-deleted post or project, or are no longer relevant {i.e. the quality is terrible, my style has changed, they are 5+ years old, etc.}, I just delete them.

Separate Hard drives //

I have a hard drive for work projects and a hard drive for travel, which comes with me on every single trip. At the beginning of the trip I immediately make a specific folder for my location. Then, at the end of every day, I transfer over and organize whatever photos I’ve taken. Depending on the length of trip, the project, etc., I either sort them by outfit, by place, by restaurant, by iPhone or just by day. This makes it much easier for me to either find a specific photo, or narrow down the ones I want to use at the end of a trip. When I’m not traveling, I keep both hard drives plugged in so I can access whatever photos I need whenever I need them.

Folders //

Speaking of folders, part of my project process is to make a folder on my work hard drive for every client as soon as contracts are signed. Then, once photos are taken for that client or project, they can immediately be transferred from shoot to folder. I also create folders for every post I write and organize those by my topic categories (Wear, Eat, Dwell, etc.}, then organize those by year. I also keep a folder of stock images and one for portfolio-worthy photos. Not only does this mean I can find the photos I need when I need them, but it also keeps iPhoto less cluttered and frees up space in the cloud/keeps my photos from uploading in 5 different places {Who else hates when the cloud does that?!}. I also use Dropbox but only when photos need client approval. I drag the required folder into Dropbox, send to the client, and keep it in there until approved, or up to 30 days.

Set Aside Time //

I could spend a whole month straight working on photos and they still wouldn’t be all organized and gone through. So, instead, I try to schedule in a few hours a week, usually on slower days like Fridays, to get through as many old photos as I can, transferring and categorizing them via my delete and folder system.

Screenshotter App //

For screenshots on my phone, which I’m just as buried in as I am photos {Aren’t we all?!}, I recently discovered this app, which has made it so much easier to organize my screenshots in a way that I can actually find and use them {Because otherwise what is the point of the screenshot, right?!}. I went through and organized about several thousand screenshots within a few hours, and now just maintain it anytime I have new screenshots. If only it was as easy to organize the rest of my photos…