Organization

Photography & Lightroom Organization Series: My Photography Workflow

by Diana on May 14, 2012

When I originally started planning this series on Photography & Lightroom Organization, I expected to write just one post to cover all points. Now, I’m planning to write multiple, smaller posts that will be easier to digest and organize. I already shared the intro (which explains how this whole series came about), and now I’m ready to discuss my photography workflow. At first, my workflow was just going to be a simple sentence at the beginning of the Plan section, but after some thought, I decided that it could use some elaboration and a dedicated post. Plus, I was inspired by the workflow posts linked at the end of this post. Not to mention, I also thought this would be easier for people to share their workflows, since I’m hoping to get lots of reader feedback on each post of the series. You guys are a wealth of knowledge, and I love it when you share your know-how. Who knows? Maybe you’ll inspire me to change my workflow?

{I made a diagram for this post. Is my geek-ness showing yet?}

My Photography Workflow

Take Pictures – Duh! You need photos to edit and organize. But, I often will shoot photos for multiple blog posts (or for personal use) in between importing to Lightroom. Some people like to shoot one set of photos and then import right away. 1photoshoot to 1 import. I just shoot whenever I feel like it and import when I have time. I can have photos from many different events on one card at one time. Currently, I have photos from about 10 recipes, 1 themed Zumba class, 1 wedding, and a couple random blog posts. I use Lightroom to keep these straight by organizing them at Import. Once I’ve imported all the photos from the card, I format the card in my camera to delete all the photos and make space for new ones.
Import to Lightroom – Some people import their photos from their memory card to the computer and then to Lightroom. I choose to import straight to Lightroom. Since Lightroom is so powerful and actually creates your folder(s) on your computer and puts the images in them, I find importing straight to Lightroom saves a step. I add all my metadata and keywords during import.
Work with Files – I do almost all of my photo editing in Lightroom. I go through all my photos, decide which ones to edit, and edit the selected photos.
Export .jpgs – I export the edited photos as smaller-sized .jpgs for use in blog posts, etc.
Clean Up – I usually wait until I’ve published the blog post for the related photos before I go back to Lightroom and clean-up those I don’t want to keep. I usually do this so if I change my mind about any photos while I’m working on the blog post, I can go back and select a different one (or a couple) to edit and export. Usually, once I’m done with the blog post, I know with more certainty which photos I want to keep and which I want to delete. I used to be lazy and skip this step, which helped my laptop filled up with superfluous photos quite quickly. Not good. Now, I delete extra photos almost immediately, and I find it’s much easier to do this as you go, rather than returning at a later date and reviewing old folders.
Move External – I don’t have a good system at the moment for when I move photos to external storage. I just recently moved all my photos through 2011 to an external drive. So far, my computer is still pretty empty, so I’m in no rush to move the current photos off.

Please note: I went over each of these steps at a pretty high level because we’ll be discussing these in more detail in the other posts of the series.

While I was researching tips and tricks for this series, I stumbled upon these great posts on Photography Workflows, which you may also find helpful:

Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection – My Photography Workflow 2009
Eric Scouten – Lightroom 2 Technique: How I Organize My Catalog and Why (2009 Edition) – Note: the post has a lot of great detail, but if you’re just looking for the workflow portion, it’s a piece of this whole post.

Next up in this series, I’ll go over:

Folder and file naming conventions
How to move folders without creating Lightroom errors
How to work with your photos / deciding what to delete and keep
Utilizing external storage (making space on your computer for more photos!)
Advanced organization considerations

Reader question: What’s your photography workflow? Do you like it? What do you want to change or why do you use it the way you do?

{ 1 comment }

Photography & Lightroom Organizing Series Intro

by Diana on May 13, 2012

in Organization,Photography

Hey guys!

Note: If you’re a reader of TCL for food or fashion (wait a minute…you’re just reading for Bailey photos, aren’t you?), you may want to skip this one. This post is an introduction to a series I’m writing on Photography and Lightroom Organization.

So, I somewhat recently ran into a major issue related to photography and blogging. I managed to fill up my entire laptop with photos, making it very difficult for me to import new photos or new blog posts. I shoot in RAW, so this didn’t actually take very long. My problem was that I was being lazy about not only organizing my photos, but also about learning best practices for doing so. I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was too busy to research, so I just didn’t try. I procrastinated. This was a big mistake. I was also afraid of moving all my photos to an external drive because I was worried I’d do it the wrong way and/or the drive would crash and I’d lose all my photos. I didn’t clean my photos up as well as I could, sure. But, the more serious issues was that I didn’t come up with a good system to follow. So, with a laptop full to the brim with photos, I knew something had to change, and I needed to get it together. I did the best thing I knew – I consulted the experts.

I contacted 4 fellow food bloggers and professional photographers to ask for their tips and feedback. They are:

(Check out their blogs and web sites – they’re amazing!)

They were all wonderful and sent me their tips and strategies. I happily read through them, and when I had the time, I started implementing some of their suggestions. First, I worked on fixing what was broken – I created a system for how I wanted to organize my photos, and I stuck to it. Afterwards, once I had some free time, I re-organized all of my old photos and moved most of them to external storage. Now, my photos are organized (and stay that way with every import), and my laptop has plenty of space for new photos.

I’m not an expert in photography, Lightroom, or organization. But, I did think it would be helpful to others if I shared the information I collected from my photo gurus, as well as, my experience with organizing photos. The important thing to note is that there isn’t one right way to do things. There are many ways, and you’ll want to tailor your solution so it best fits you. Hopefully, some of the information from these posts or resources I share get you on the right path.

In this series, I’m going to go over:

My photography workflow
Folder and file naming conventions
How to move folders without creating Lightroom errors
How to work with your photos / deciding what to delete and keep
Utilizing external storage (making space on your computer for more photos!)
Advanced organization considerations

Stay tuned for more follow-up posts to come!

Oh, and if you’re a professional photographer and/or advanced Lightroom user, please feel free to weigh in at any time with your thoughts. I’m sure you have great feedback, and I invite you to share your know-how if you want.

Do you use Lightroom? Do you have any questions for now one general Photography or Lightroom Organization?

{ 4 comments }

Parisian Wardrobe {Or Parisian Closet}

by Diana on May 10, 2012

in Fashion Chic,Organization,Shopping

Hello TCL Readers! Hope you’re all doing well.

I’ve had so many blog post ideas swimming around in my head lately that I think I may have short-circuited. Or maybe I’m just suffering from writer’s block. Either way, I’ve been meaning to post more, and I’m going to go ahead and start getting some of these ideas published for once!

First up…I want to talk to you about closets and clothes. I’ve been thinking about mine a lot lately, and I think I want to work towards something different. I call it the “Parisian Closet”. I’ll explain the meaning in a minute, but first, let’s talk about “Then” and “Now”:

Then {Quantity Over Quality}

Back in the day, I used to be quite the bargain shopper when it came to clothes. I think I could have taken down almost any coupon mom out there in my heyday, except I just knew how to shop the sales racks (they didn’t seem to have as many coupons for clothing back in the day). Now, don’t get me wrong, I still love a good sale and a great deal. But, where I think I went wrong was that I was so focused on quantity over quality. Was there ever enough clothes in my closet? No. It could have been bulging at the seams with clothes falling out in some grotesque hoarder-esque way and I still wouldn’t have had enough. I didn’t really care how nice something was, I just wanted more. Did it look kind of cute? Is it super cheap or greatly discounted? Sold! Luckily, I didn’t have a lot of money, so the lack of funds kept me from getting too out of control. Oh, and this will sound pretty crazy, but when I was in high school, and Cher (not the singer) was my “idol”, I used to track my outfits. I’d write down what I wore to school each day in my planner so I wouldn’t wear the same thing again for at least a month (preferably never).

Now {Quality Over Quantity}

These days, I’m starting to focus on quality over quantity, and I don’t mean just expensive things. I don’t think something has to be pricey for it to be quality. I’ve just noticed that I have a ridiculous amount of clothes that I’ve collected over the last several years. Do I wear most of it? Not really. I find myself wearing a lot of the same things over and over. So, what’s the point of having all those clothes if you aren’t even going to wear them? I don’t think there is one…at least, not for me. And unlike the days of high school, I actually like wearing the same outfit repeatedly. And what I really like is when you get to wear that one special piece of jewelry or unique dress that makes you feel like a million bucks. I don’t want to have a giant closet full of okay clothes. I want a smaller closet of clothes that make me feel wonderful. I want to find more of those magical pieces and slowly collect them.

The Parisian Wardrobe {Or Parisian Closet}

I could be wrong here, but I’ve heard that Europeans tend to have less clothes than Americans. Can anyone confirm? It seems like Europeans are generally more concerned about the quality over quantity. With this idea in mind and since I love all things French, I’m nicknaming my goal the “Parisian Wardrobe.” I just think it’s more catchy than “European Wardrobe”.

Reasons

I have a few reasons, some mentioned above, why I’m working towards a “Parisian Wardrobe”:

Wearing the same thing: I’ve noticed I wear the same things from my closet. There’s no point in cluttering up my space with stuff I don’t use. I need to purge and be more selective about what makes it in the closet. Which brings me to my next point…
Space: We have an older house with un-renovated closets. We’re hoping to remodel one day, but let’s get real – that’s not going to happen any time soon (unless I win the lottery). I have clothes spread out between 4 tiny closets in the house, which is simply ridiculous.
Easier to Dress: With less so-so clothes cluttering up my closet, I believe I’ll more easily be able to put outfits together.
Eco-Friendly: It’s more eco-friendly to have a “Parisian Wardrobe.” I’ll be purchasing less from the stores, which will at minimum save waste from all the packaging tied to shopping.
Magic Items: Instead of having a lot of so-so things in my wardrobe, I want more of those magic items that make you feel special when you wear them.

Challenges:

I have a couple challenges to face as I work towards my goal:

Shopaholicism: Okay, I don’t need a therapist for this or anything, but I have definitely been a bit of a shopaholic in the past. If I’m going to have a smaller wardrobe one day, I need to slow down on the shopping. Luckily, my mortgage and other bills help keep this in check by stealing all my shopping money!
Too Much Clothes: Like I mentioned before, I already have too much clothing. I’ve tried purging in the past. I’m having a hard time letting go of a lot of my clothes, even if I don’t wear them. I’ve tried doing the whole “if you haven’t worn this in a year then get rid of it” thing, but that’s so much easier said than done.

Projects:

To reach my goal, I’m going to have to tackle a few projects:

Closet Pare Down – I’m going to have to get serious about purging
Adventures in Re-Sale – It would be pretty sweet if I could make some money on all those items I purge.
Strategic Shopping – I’m going to have to work on my shopping style so it’s more in line with the “Parisian Wardrobe” concept. Less is more!

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What’s your wardrobe style?

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Now, is it just me, or does anyone else feel like watching Clueless?

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Reader question: I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. How do you keep your wardrobe/closet in check? Do you think you have too much clothes, the right amount, or too little?

{ 23 comments }

A Shiny New Planner & Road Trip Tips

by Diana on August 15, 2011

in Life,Organization,Travel

I’ve had so many great blog post ideas queued up in my head:

a special (and wonderful!) announcement/reveal
that yummy Italian egg-bake – so perfect in the morning for busy people like us
as well as several other tasty recipes

But, I just couldn’t wait to share photos of my shiny new planner!

See, I used to be a bit of a geek back in school. I actually always looked forward to the start of the school year and my favorite part of getting ready for the school year was always getting new school supplies – the fun folders, the colored notebooks/paper, and oh the colored pens! Those were my faves. Well, except for my maybe the thing that kept my busy school-life in order – my planner. I would always find the prettiest, cutest planner and used all those colored pens to coordinate my subjects and homework assignments. I was so on top of my game back then. lol At one point, I even used to write down what outfit I wore that day so I didn’t wear it again too soon.

Alas, over the years, I forgot about my beloved organization system. I never really found a planner that functioned like the ones I used in school. Eventually, I tried flying by the seat of my pants without a planner. At some point, I tried entering dates and to-dos into my phone, but it just didn’t have the same effect.

It’s only been recently that I decided I should give a paper planner another try.

So, I guess, with all that history, it should come as no surprise that I was excited about the purchase of my new planner in preparation for the organization challenge I’ll be running in September.

Shiny New Planner

I was so excited when I saw the box arrive in the mail.

Enjoy indeed!

I loved the TCL blue tissue paper, of course.

And I even got some freebies – special stickers for placing on gifts, etc. Some in this nifty giraffe-looking print and some to match my planner.

And for the planner – here it is! It’s the Life Planner by Erin Condren. See! Another super-cute, and this time personalized, planner. Hazzah!

I chose this planner because it’s organized by week AND month – exactly the format I used back when I was in school.

And this one has some other neat features – stickers!!

And tabs!

And just look at all those pretty colors. I just love looking at it, which is a good thing since a planner is most effective when you look at it often. Of course, hopefully, I’m not too distracted by the colors and I actually look at the content.

But what planner would be complete without colored pens? Ok, planners for most people would be complete, but not for me.

I wasn’t sure what colors I’d want to use, so I just picked up two sets on sale at staples.

I wrote with each color on some white paper to see what the ink looked like.

And I even tried matching the ink to the stickers in the back.

But, ultimately, I came up with 7 key categories/areas of my life that need to be grouped and assigned one color for each group, for example: purple-ish/pink for friends and family, green for Zumba, etc.

I’ve been using my planner for about a week now and will be giving more detailed updates with the organization challenge in September. Stay tuned for details on that soon!

And if you’re ready for a challenge now, you can jump into the August challenge – Project Think Positive. Start with any week, but click here for this week’s challenge – it’s a goodie and I think I’m already seeing good results from it!

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Road Trip Tips

So, on Thursday, Katie and I will embark on an epic road trip to the Healthy Living Summit. We’ll be driving almost 10 hours. Phew! So, we’ll need some good tips for staying sane during this long-long trip.

What are your road trip tips?

I asked this question on Facebook and here are your current suggestions:

Music!
Podcasts
Books on CD/iPod/etc.
Healthy snacks

Have one to add?

*Yawn* Getting pretty sleepy here at the Chic house, so I think I’m going to head off to bed. Be sure to leave some feedback or say hello in the comments! I love hearing from you guys. Bailey does too.

Reader question #1: Do you use a planner? Do you think they help you stay organized and on top of things?

Reader question #2: What are your road trip tips?

{ 28 comments }

Clothes Organization – Part 1 & Crispy Onion BBQ Burger

May 31, 2011

Cooking and organizing with sis continued right into Monday. I know most people like to do fun and relaxing things on their day’s off, and I do, too, but lately, I’ve been feeling so behind, I feel obligated to be productive for most of the vacay-day. Luckily, getting things done gives me a great sense [...]

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On Organizing + Homemade BBQ Sauce

May 31, 2011

Just as I thought my work schedule was starting to calm down a bit, it’s actually going to get worse than ever…at least for a little while. Even still, I’m going to try even harder than ever to work some time for organization into my already-hectic schedule. Over the last year or so, I’ve sort [...]

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Farm Fresh Strawberry Shortcake with Amaretto-Spiked Whipped Cream

May 17, 2011

First up, I just want to send out a big WELCOME with a giant hug to all my new readers and blog friends. I’ve been seeing a lot of new commenters, twitter followers, and Facebook friends. I’m not always the fastest at replying to comments and stuff, but I did want to say that I [...]

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Cowfish + 5 Minutes Now / Stress-Free Tomorrow

March 22, 2011

More Time Management fun ahead friends! And before we get too far, did I mention I have a Facebook page with exclusive content? Yep, that’s right! Click here to check it out and hopefully like my page! I’m going to talk prepping for the next day. But first… A fried egg and half a blueberry [...]