It’s 2010 and hundreds of nano-robots have entered my brain and are accessing my organizational programs. We also have that *big thing coming up, so it’s time to get busy. Trepidation? You bet.

Since around 2004 when I got my very first digital camera, I’ve simply loaded images onto my computer willy nilly. With hardly any regard to structure, it’s one of those things I told myself I’d do later. 40,000 images later, I’m at an important juncture in my career. I have too many images, don’t need access to them all, and need to find them faster. Furthermore, iPhoto isn’t meant to handle 40,000+ images. It’s meant for Mom and Dad’s photos of birthday parties, Christmases, and the Grand Canyon. Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a slight on Mac or anything. Mac and I are good friends, but iPhoto really isn’t the high-octane photo organizer a photographer like me needs. It bogs down, chokes up, and fades out.

The problem now is that I do indeed have 40,000 photos (maybe more, not counting everything on my laptop). I’ve done some research and have come across a lovely $300 application called “Lightroom”; it’s made by our friends over at Adobe, the people who brought you Photoshop. Lightroom is like iPhoto on crack. It’s got quite a few more advanced features and really seems to take organization seriously. In addition, it makes me feel more grown-up.

Problem is, how do I integrate 40,000 photos into a new application using new organizational methods? I have no idea. I thought I’d import everything and then organize, but I couldn’t figure it out. I thought the best way to do this was to import everything at once. Once I got everything in, I couldn’t figure out a good method. I thought about starting over and importing folder by folder. That was until I realized iPhoto isn’t necessarily organized that way. Besides, I don’t think I can import image by image one by one. That would take forever. I deleted everything I’d just imported. Not the original files, by the way. The added bonus came when I cleared the trash bin. I then realized I could indeed organize the way I wanted to within Lightroom, except, now I have to start over.

Yesterday, the import took around 4 hours. At present, Lightroom is acknowledging that the images were there but cannot find them. Yeah, that’s because I deleted them. I’m not sure how to get the ghost images out of there and a second “delete” is taking forever. Good thing I’ve allocated the entire day for this project. And I have to do it. It’s integral that I stay organized, can find images, and can get my workflow working. Up until now, I haven’t had an efficient workflow and I’m pretty sure it’s hindering my work. I’ve come to hate downloading images and I have hardly any desire to work on them, work through them, or put them to any good use. That’s because the current method doesn’t work. I need things that work.

We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got 4 hours to kill. I guess I’ll do laundry or something.

UPDATE: When tried to re-import the images from the iPhoto Library, the entire library was gone. Yes, this means what you think it means. Everything. Gone. We still have no idea what happened, but are hoping that by using Time Machine to restore the internal drive to an earlier date before the Lightroom debacle, this will fix things. I hope. Of course, this means I must also face the fact that all my images might be gone. Forever.

*Note to self: Five years from now, you won’t remember what you’re talking about. Hint: 320