Obviously, if you label your digital photos before backing them up, you'll have a much easier time finding photos you want later. Plus, you reduce the chance, six months from now, of sitting in front of your computer with a folder of hundreds of photos having no idea what each of them are.

Unfortunately, renaming each individual photo and providing a description can take a lot of time. One other option is to create a text file in the folder with your folders. You can do this with Notepad (if you use Windows) or your favorite text editor. In the file, provide the date the photo was taken, then each filename and a description of each photo.

For example, a file called !photolog.txt (prefaced with an exclamation point so the log file appears first or last in a folder when you sort files by date) could look like this:

Gatlinburg and Sevierville, TN: 3/28/2003

PICT0001.JPG - Gatlinburg aerial shot
PICT0002.JPG - Gatlinburg aerial shot
PICT0003.JPG - The 'Old Mill' churning away
PICT0004.JPG - Ducks on the Little Pigeon River

..etc. You get the idea.

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