I mentioned in my posts about my goals for 2021 that I want to do a fair amount of work on my photo gallery (Setting goals for 2021 – Part 5: Computers, Website, Blogging, Writing, Media and Photos). But in order to do that, one of the things that is a challenge is ensuring that each gallery (say, a given month of a year) is set up consistently each and every time. That’s not a “small” step of consistency, but one that starts from the very beginning. So let’s talk about the different stages of the workflow.

Stage 1. Taking the photos

My photo gallery is made up of photos that come to me from multiple sources, and I need to be able to tell them apart for the purposes of managing. I can manipulate the filenames after the fact, but it would be easier (as my friend Matt suggested) if the filenames themselves were a bit more process-friendly. So let’s look at what those FNs would look like:

• Andrea’s iPhone –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – AH
• Paul’s iPhone –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – PS
• Jacob’s iPhone –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – JH
• DSLR –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – DSLR
• Point and Shoot –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – SC (* for small camera)
• Screen grab –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – SCR
• Tablet –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – TAB

Now, some of those can be assigned at time of capture, while others will have to be assigned at time of file transfer. Depends on the original tool. So the workflow bifurcates after this step, but the step here is the same:

• Take the picture

Stage 2. Managing the photos – Pre-processing and pre-sorting

Managing the photos is initially quite easy. I have to copy them from the device to the same folder on my PC, and I do it in four stages depending on the imaging source (copy to the hard drive, copy to the sorting folder, simple sort, and convert videos).

For Andrea’s iPhone and the Point and Shoot camera, the photos get transferred to her desktop and then copied onto a USB thumb drive.

For Jacob’s iPhone, the photos get transferred to his laptop and then copied onto a USB thumb drive.

For my iPhone, the DSLR, and the tablet, all the files are synched onto my desktop into a Synching folder.

Any files that are not already renamed properly can be renamed at this stage.

For the final step, all eight original sources are then moved into a sorting folder where I sort them by month and day or event into relevant folders. Since lots of shots are grouped together, I create a file folder structure such as:

YYYY / MM-Month (general folder as the upper level folder)

YYYY / MM-Month / DD (Event title) like “14 Kayaking at MEP’s” or “29 Birthday party”

YYYY / MM-Month / Extras as a folder for ones not being used in the gallery (often mistakes or just not meant for public, like a photo taken in a store of something I want to buy)

YYYY / MMb – Special – Special event for the month (#1) like a party, trip, etc. where a large number of photos warrant their own gallery

YYYY / MMb – Special – Special event for the month (#2) like a party, trip, etc. where a large number of photos warrant their own gallery

YYYY / MMz – Blog posts for photos that I’m going to eventually upload to the website to include in various blog posts but are generally not interesting enough on their own to include in “general photos”.

For the first level of sorting, I move everything into the relevant folders. It may mean, for example, that I have a folder for a big trip that has photos from multiple sources in it, and in fact, I usually do have at least 2 sources for various daily events.

For the second level of sorting, I convert all MOV format videos into MP4 format (suitable for the web) and move all old videos into the EXTRAs sub-folder.

• Copy from the device to the hard drive
• Copy from hard drive (potentially via USB flash drive) to the sorting folder and rename any if necessary.
• Do a simple sort by event and dates
• Convert videos to MP4

Stage 3. Managing the photos – Advanced sort in Mylio

I use Mylio as my image manager, and I do four steps in Mylio.

First and foremost, I import all the images from the sorting folder including the directories I created. When they arrive in Mylio, they are in a sorting folder too. I basically go through and move the quality images I want to use for each event into the MONTHLY folder (such as 2021 / 01 January). Extras that I’m not using, such as the secondary or tertiary photos of a group of ducks, I move into the EXTRAS folder. I also do a quality sort on the videos, special events, and folders of photos I intend to use for my blog posts.

In some cases, I may decide to edit a video or photo to make it suitable for sharing, in which case I make a copy and edit the copy rather than the original. I usually do this in another program beyond Mylio and then reimport the edited version.

Once I have a set of photos and videos for a given month (for instance, 2021 / 01 January), I run facial recognition on the “good” photos (there are too many photos to worry about doing the Extras too) and I let the computer do most of the work to group them and guesstimate who is in the photo. After the first few hundred of a given year are posted, the rest of the guesses are usually pretty accurate on the first attempt. I then add metadata to the files. This includes a name and description for the photo (identical as it is used differently in WordPress), something short, and some keyword tagging that includes year, city, event, and any people in the photo who were tagged in the Key Words. Finally, I save all the metadata to the image file.

Finally, now that the photos are all sorted, named and tagged, I move it from a sorting folder into my full folder structure for the Panda Photo Gallery in Mylio which generally has the structure of FAMILY / YEAR / MONTH.

• Import images into Mylio sorting area
• Do advanced quality and photo selection, filing the rest in EXTRAS.
• (Optional) Edit any photos or videos that require tweaking
• Facial recognition
• Add metadata (name, description, tags/keywords)
• Save metadata to image file
• Move from sorting folder into a full folder structure

Stage 4. Uploading to WordPress

Up until this point, most of the file management stuff is just simply a good process / workflow for keeping my photos organized and filtered for quality. Now I look at the parts of getting it on the website.

Initially, I create a page to hold the gallery (while this could be done later, it saves a step in the gallery creation process) and assign it a name such as 2021/01 January, and insert two default items — a blank photo gallery and a blank video gallery. I save the page, but leave it in edit mode.

Then, working by folder (such as 2021 / 01 January), I create a new GALLERY called 2021-01 January in WordPress. This opens an upload area, and using Mylio as my initial interface, I upload all of the good PHOTOS for that month/event. Since I already populated the metadata fields, the upload puts everything into the WordPress fields for me. This completes the step of uploading all the PHOTOs. I can then edit the GALLERY description to describe the various events in the monthly folder (copying the description for later use, like a descriptive table of contents), add the link to the page created above (the step that I saved allows me to do this now), and add the GALLERY to the appropriate ALBUM (such as the year, 2021).

Then it is time to upload Videos, if any. These have to be done in the Media Library, and using Media Library Assistant, I save them to a separate sub-folder usually called YYYY-MM. Now that all the files are uploaded, it’s time to go back and edit the page I created earlier.

Each Gallery page has six components to edit:

• The Page name, if it needs to be tweaked from the standard page name (usually YYYY-MM for months but could be YYYY-MM Special – Trip to Mexico);
• A manual breadcrumb that I’ve created to allow the viewer to go one level higher easily;
• A description of the gallery (same as what was already entered in the Gallery Page, just pasted here);
• The blank gallery block to choose which gallery I want to show, and to change the order of photos if needed;
• The names / description of any videos that need to be linked; and,
• Linking to the videos themselves.

Finally, everything is saved and the page is previewed to make sure everything works, and the page is published. The link is then shared to FB along with the gallery description.

• Create a page and edit the page name, add a blank photo gallery block and a blank video gallery block, and save in draft mode;
• Create the new gallery, upload all the photos, edit the gallery for gallery description (and copy for later) and link to the page created above;
• Add the GALLERY to the right ALBUM;
• Upload videos and sort into sub-folder;
• Go back and edit the page for page name, manual breadcrumb, paste the description, choose a gallery in the blank gallery block, edit the names / descriptions of the videos, and link to the videos themselves;
• Save and preview/test, then publish;
• Share link with FB.

Stage 5. Backups and further usage

Mylio automatically does a backup of all photos to a secondary location, and long-term, I want that to upload to the cloud too. Later, I do a separate backup of all my files to off-site storage.

At the end of the year, I also take all the “GOOD” photos and put them on a USB thumb drive for Andrea to weed and use to make a Photobook. Once she’s done, I save the final photos back to another folder labelled PHOTOBOOK. If there are any really good ones for the year, we also use them in Calendars, New Year’s letters, metal prints, and an e-frame.

• Backup to secondary location/vault;
• Backup with all files to offsite location;
• Create a small subset each year for Andrea to use for photobooks, calendars, New Year’s letter, metal prints, and e-frame;
• Copy subset back to a folder called PHOTOBOOKS.

And then, finally, I’m done. Whew. So let’s look at that workflow all together so I don’t miss anything each time. I’m also going to copy it into a PowerPoint print-out so I don’t lose it. Nineteen steps that I have to do consistently every time or something gets messed up.

1. Take the picture
2. Copy from the device to the hard drive
3. Copy from hard drive (potentially via USB flash drive) to the sorting folder and rename any if necessary.
4. Do a simple sort by event and dates
5. Convert videos to MP4
6. Import images into Mylio sorting area
7. Do advanced quality and photo selection, filing the rest in EXTRAS.
8. (Optional) Edit any photos or videos that require tweaking
9. Facial recognition
10. Add metadata (name, description, tags/keywords)
11. Save metadata to image file
12. Move from sorting folder into a full folder structure
13. Create a page and edit the page name, add a blank photo gallery block and a blank video gallery block, and save in draft mode;
14. Create the new gallery, upload all the photos, edit the gallery for gallery description (and copy for later) and link to the page created above;
15. Add the GALLERY to the right ALBUM;
16. Upload videos and sort into sub-folder;
17. Go back and edit the page for page name, manual breadcrumb, paste the description, choose a gallery in the blank gallery block, edit the names / descriptions of the videos, and link to the videos themselves;
18. Save and preview/test, then publish;
19. Share link with FB.
20. Backup to secondary location/vault;
21. Backup with all files to offsite location;
22. Create a small subset each year for Andrea to use for photobooks, calendars, New Year’s letter, metal prints, and e-frame;
23. Copy subset back to a folder called PHOTOBOOKS.