Everything is easy IF you have the right tools!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love taking pictures.  However I have been very negligent in looking after those pictures. As a result, I have TENS of THOUSANDS of pictures and NO WAY to find them.   It takes forever and a GOOD memory which isn't always reliable.

I started checking out this book

Thousands of Images, Now What???

The author (Mike Hagen) chatted about storing photos, editing photos and orgaizing photos (and much more). That is the part that I need the most help with at this time.  One of the software packages that he talked about was Lightroom by Adobe. Now you can also use browser based software packages, but I liked the sound of Lightroom.

Now you know that I had a problem when I tried to load Lightroom on my antique of a laptop with its Windows Vista. Hey the computer is NOT that old - a couple of years.

After realizing the problem and a bit of research - OK - so a few minutes of research, I was off to Future Shop.  We asked for the model of laptop that I found online. As we were waiting for the salesperson to get the box - M and I were crusing around looking at everything else.  Now I have to say that I am HP brand loyal, so that eliminates a lot of other stuff and makes the shopping easy!!!!

Well - after a bit of discussion - we changed our minds and THIS is what we got.

It is the ENVY by HP - Twenty three inch screen. Ooops - the THREE things on the left are MINE - my hard disk, my phone and a thumb drive. 

This computer is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! There is a screen, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. The ONLY wire to hook up was the power cord for the screen. In about 30 seconds from taking the computer out of the box - it was WORKING.  Oh yeah!!!!!    This is an AMAZING computer.  Not only is that screen HUGE, but it is a TOUCH SCREEN.   I am IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the computer from the side - see - NO CPU. It is all built into the screen and the stand. (Granted there is NO CD drive, but you can buy one for external use, but let's face it - how many times do you use one?????)

Not only is that screen awesome, but LOOK...............

You can change the angle of the screen to suit you!!!!!!!!!

And it goes even lower to the table!!!!!!!!!!!

Or an angle - Oh yes - this is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I took my external hard disk (that is for my pictures) - I believe it is a 1 TB hard disk and it is about half full of pictures and hooked it up to the computer.

External hard disk

 So the first night, after downloading the Lightroom software, I figured out how to "import" the pictures to the software.  Those pictures will NEVER be downloaded to the new computer, but will remain on the hard disk (which will be backed up to TWO more hard disks) soon.

This software is AWESOME.   It is easy to zip around the directories, it is FAST and I figured out how to do what I wanted with about 5 minutes of fumbling.   Oh I am in LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

And how many pictures do you think we are talking about??????

Look - very clear - it shows there are 47,138 pictures. See - I was NOT exaggerating. I have deleted some - you know - the blurry ones!!!   And once they are tagged, I will be able to delete more. There are duplicates or very simlilar. 

Last night I spent some time tagging pictures.  I love it - I can add as many tags to a picture that I want. Then I can do slideshows, I can slice and dice my pictures ANY WAY I want.   Oh this is BEAUTIFUL.   This is something that I have wanted to do for a LONG TIME and it is SO EASY  (OK - so I needed new software and a computer, but still!!!)

You know how you take tons of pictures at quilt shows because they were really important and then you never look at them again????   Well - that is NOT going to happen here!!!!!   Oh yeah - I can tag them by the quilt show name, the pattern, the colour, the quilt design and then when I want something specific - I just scroll down the list of tags and CLICK - there are all the pictures (in that category) REGARDLESS of where they are stored on that hard disk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Do you see why I am in LOVE???????


Now the new computer has Windows 8.1. And many people told me to be afraid - be very afraid of that software.  However with the touch screen - it is a breeze. OK - so I am just using one software - well, I have the weather set up and news and a whole bunch of stuff and since it is all TOUCH - it is easy, easy, easy.

The best part - when in doubt - just hit the WINDOWS button on the keyboard and it goes back to the main screen.

Windows button!!!!!!!!!!!

And here is it's new home.   I just so love that the screen is on a different level than the keyboard. For a home computer, this is so much more egonomic. 

The screen is the equilvalent of TWO pages.   How awesome is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I tagged photos into the night and I am tired today.  

I did get some stuff done - quilting stuff.   Tagging the pictures is also QUILT related because I now have access to all those quilt pictures. But I have embroidery club in a few minutes - so will share what I did another time.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!