Rio AraI stood on a narrow metal footbridge that swayed to the rhythm of the aquamarine waters of the Rio Ara river in Ordesa, Spain as its waters raged beneath me through the ancient valley gorge. The roar of her turbulent passage was made loader as it echoed off the ancient glacier-capped canyon cliffs she had slowly carved over the eons. This was easily one of the most stunningly awesome landscapes I have ever been blessed to witness. I will be returning to this spot next year with a group of photographers interested in capturing the majesty of Spains Pyrenees Mountains landscapes and nightscapes. More info on this trip will be posted on my webpage.
Shoot Date: June 15, 2018
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Aperture priority ¹⁄₂₀₀ sec at f/11 ‒ 1 EV
Lens: EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM @ 16 mm
ISO: 100

I stood on a narrow metal footbridge that swayed to the rhythm of the aquamarine waters of the Rio Ara river in Ordesa, Spain as its waters raged beneath me through the ancient valley gorge. The roar of her turbulent passage was made loader as it echoed off the ancient glacier-capped canyon cliffs she had slowly carved over the eons. This was easily one of the most stunningly awesome landscapes I have ever been blessed to witness. I will be returning to this spot next year with a group of photographers interested in capturing the majesty of Spains Pyrenees Mountains landscapes and nightscapes. More info on this trip will be posted on my webpage.
Shoot Date: June 15, 2018
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Aperture priority ¹⁄₂₀₀ sec at f/11 ‒ 1 EV
Lens: EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM @ 16 mm
ISO: 100

Sunset at Brown CanyonAs Cindy and I made our way back from picking up a 20-pound bag of Nyger to feed the insatiable finch and siskin in the backyard, we looked at the sky and decided to stop by Brown Canyon to see the sunset. It was the right decision.

I am usually not a fan of HDR images but decided to try it on this shot. This is seven exposures, one stop apart at f8. I will probably re-edit the image using my typical workflow tomorrow. Let me know what you think?
Shoot Date: February 2, 2018
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Aperture priority f/8.0
Lens: EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM @ 17 mm
ISO: 100

One of my New Years resolutions in 2018 was to get my Lightroom catalog organized. It was also my resolution in 2017, 2016, 2015 and earlier. Whenever I would begin the task, I would quickly become overwhelmed by the over 300,000 images and give up. Not this year.

Throughout the years I have come up with some incredibly complicated organizing plans and read others incredibly complicated organizing plans. I've concluded that, at least for me, they are useless. For this photographer, it has to be simple. Very simple. And, it needs to start at the beginning of my workflow.

I have two goals for my organization framework. Make all images easy to access and keep my catalog at a reasonable size. For a decade I have been importing images without culling the garbage or keywording. The result is a slow, unwieldy and inefficient catalog. There are tens of thousands of useless, blurry photos as well as series of hundreds of servo images with only one or two representative shots that need to be kept.

It was time to make a decision. How was I going to get this under control? I had to make some choices. Did I need one master catalog, or could I go with some version of smaller catalogs? My current catalog has well over 400,000 images in it. Not only is that too many(no matter what Adobe says), but, as I shoot in RAW, it has created the need for terabytes of storage space hanging off of my computer. Add to that my paranoid need to have at least two copies, on separate disks, of all my images and I have a massive, expensive mess. I decided to attack the problem in two phases. The first was to give myself a fresh beginning and create a new catalog with only the current year's photos. This would give me a chance to back or forward organize without getting discouraged. Once 2018 was good to go, I could go back to my old catalog and start the process of culling and keywording.  

But now the question was “How do I create a system that will be easy to implement and help me achieve my goals of fast search and smaller size catalog?” Here is the method I have decided on. It is not entirely original, but it is simple and will work. I welcome you to use it as is or modify it to your needs.

It all begins with Keyword PUX. You might not have ever heard of this, that's good because I made it up. Keyword PUX is a two-part strategy that begins at import. First, you add the keywords and then, as soon as the import completes, you cull the images.

Keywording is essential if you hope to quickly locate images a few months to years after they have been added to your catalog. Selecting a set of generalized keywords, such as state, town, shoot type (Landscape, Nightscape, Wildlife, Birds) that can be added at import makes staying on top of keywording straightforward. Even better, if you frequently shoot in the same locations, or shoot same types of subjects, you can create Metadata Presets that allow you to add the relevant keywords quickly. Metadata Presets are essential for copyright and image protection reasons as well, so I will cover them in a separate post.

Once the images are imported, you can PUX them. What is PUX? It is the acronym for the keyboard shortcuts the allow you to (P) Flag as Pick, (U) Unselect, (X) Set as Rejected an image. For the system to work fast make sure you have Auto Advance turned on (Photo: Auto Advance checked). Now start to go through the imported images hitting the U key for images you want to keep but are unsure about editing, i.e., most images. Hit the P key for photos that just WOW you and you know you are going to want to edit right away; fewest images. Most importantly from a catalog size management perspective, hit the X key for blurry pictures or ones that you know you don't want.

As soon as you have gone through this first pass go to "Delete Rejected Photos..." (Photo: Delete Rejected Photos…) and select "Delete from Disk" in the window that opens. Done! You now have a reasonably sized, searchable result from your shoot. 

I take it one step further for my wildlife images. I shoot birds most frequently and will often have many different species in my import. Typically, they will be grouped. After my initial Keyword PUX, I go back through and add species names to the images. I also quickly go through my servo bursts and X redundant images, keeping only one or two from each burst. I have found that this second PUX pass can often cut my total shoot keepers in half! That is a massive disk and catalog size saving.

I’ve learned that everyone has their own style of keeping things organized. Let me know if these suggestions help or share your comments on how you organize your Lightroom catalog.

It's funny how our perception is affected by our upbringing. Having lived in the New York tri-state region most of my life, I am used to seeing bizarre jetsam turn up just about anywhere, including outside my house. Of course, there is the iconic lone sneaker on the side of the highway, which leaves one wondering where the one-legged man has gone. But I have also seen grills, chairs, sofas and other various household items show up on the side of the road. That is my frame of reference. I am shocked by nothing. 

Moving to rural America has been a welcome change. The serenity of the open plain, its tall grasses reflecting the amber glow of daylight,  contrasted by a border of rugged mountains, with their dark shaded hues of brown and black, has left me in awe each day. It is with profound anticipation and joy that I wake up each morning to gaze out my office window at the pristine dawning of a new adventure.  I have never felt such a sense of being home. It is something I treasure deeply. And, it is something I wish to keep in its pristine state. 

I believe that to do so may create a need for me to reset my preconceived notions of what is typical on the roadside. This morning reinforced that belief.  I awoke, as usual, slipped on my robe and slippers, and went to my office to watch the sunrise. As a looked out the window, I was immediately assaulted by the cruelest reminder of my old haunts. There, across the street from my house, where the lush fields run unspoiled, was a massive black sofa, carelessly deposited right in the middle of my view! As rage replaced relaxation, I turned to go get my wife and scream about the invasion of our oasis. I was about three steps in when it occurred to me that I might have been too hasty in my assessment. I turned back to the window and took a better look. Imagine my surprise and embarrassment when I realized the discarded sofa was actually a grazing cow. 

Instantly the scene outside transformed back into one of peaceful enjoyment again. In fact, it was so exceptional that I felt I needed to capture it and share it with the world. I call this image When the Cows Come Home for that is where they have chosen to graze, at my home. I am truly blessed by our Lord with the visions he allows me to witness. 

When the Cows Come Home