10 October 2010

101010

Today is 101010. That's 10/10/10, or October 10, 2010. I save all my photos in folders on my computer named by date, using that first convention — Year Month Day. Tomorrow will be 101011.

I once "counted" all the photos stored on my hard disk. Well, I let the computer count them. I just searched for all the files on the computer that have a .jpg extension. I think the total was about 125,000. And that doesn't count the files with .bmp and other image extensions.

Autumn leaves here in Saint-Aignan are grape leaves.
You can click on the photos to see them at a larger size.

I got my first digital camera in 1998 and started taking pictures. Before that, I never enjoyed photography. I'm on my sixth camera now. Two Kodaks, two Canons, and now two Panasonics. By the way, my current cameras are nearly totally automatic, and pretty small. No fiddling with complicated settings. And I admit I use Adobe Photoshop a lot.

The local woods in autumn

That many photos is kind of overwhelming to think about. I'm a mitrailleur with the camera, they would say in French — in other words, I use it like a machine gun. Snap snap snap. That's a gruesome image, but vivid. So far, however, I don't think I've actually hurt anybody with it. But why take one picture when you can take ten?

More grape leaves in autumn

Because all the photos are stored by date and not by any kind of subject-matter scheme, it's nearly impossible to find any particular one when you want it. All you can do is go back and look at a particular day, month, or year. And pretty soon you're tired out, because there are so many of them.

Rows of vines

By the way, I actually have all the photos on two redundant hard disks, so that if one of the disks gives up the ghost, I'll still have the other one. I also have them all on CDs and DVDs — I do a monthly backup. If both of my hard disks die, I'll still be overwhelmed with photos.

A dahlia

I guess it's kind of obsessive. Aren't we all? Anyway, today's photos are ones I took the week of 051010 to 051017. Four cameras ago. I don't have the cameras any more, but I've been careful to save the pictures. I started this blog later that month, nearly five years ago already.

7 comments:

  1. I store photos, well the program does, by the same method, that is date, but to each folder I add an identifying location or occasion or something by tacking a word or two on after the folder date. Not perfect, but I can usually find what I want easily.

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  2. I made a list of places, people or whatever by date and the corresponding P..... number for my most recent pictures. That way, they're somewhat easy to find.

    In the first photo, the grapes leaves look like large coleus leaves.

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  3. Thank you for your stunning photos. My last computer had a nasty and unexpected demise but not before I had saved all the photos to an external hard drive. So a little tip. Always catalogue and back up as well.

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  4. I think digital cameras are the best thing, so far, that's ever happened to photography.

    125,000 photos...you must have a huge hard drive.

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  5. Aren't they great, digital cameras? You can just shoot away to your heart's delight, and delete later :)

    I always love these photos of the colorful vineyard leaves :))

    Judy

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  6. We are the beneficiaries of your "obsession." Thanks!

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  7. Your "grape leaves" picture (first one) is now my background on my computer. I thought they were coleus, just like chm said, when I saw the picture before I read your description, too! The variations of the pinks and purples are splendid.

    I did an online search earlier today on inheritance/tax/france and read up on it. Previously my information came from a book I had read from our local library. My daughter spent a year in france just after she received an inheritance. She decided not to have me put the inheritance in her name until she returned from France. I will go to the library and reread the book and report back my findings.

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