Tonight I’m going to undertake a task I have been putting off for too long.

I’m going to consolidate my photo library into one.

While some people will read that sentence and go, “What’s the big deal? Don’t you have just one photo library?”

Ah, if only things were that simple.

I used to have one.  Or at least two because I had initially used iPhoto (or whatever the app on the Mac is called) because I had gotten a Macbook and didn’t know what to use, so I started using it.  And I was still using a point-and-shoot camera, so it worked.  Then I started shooting with a digital SLR, and things got nutty.

When you can shoot 500 photos on one card? Photos get nuts.

They are everywhere.

So I upgraded to Adobe Elements. And used that for a long time – then upgraded to Lightroom.  Then my laptop died (but thankfully, my photos were on an external drive), then the restore onto the new laptop didn’t go well.  Then the external drive filled up – so I had to get a new one – and that one filled up.  Then another laptop change – and another external drive was needed.

Confused yet? That’s why this has been a project long put off.

Why start tackling it now?

G sent me about a dozen galleries and art shows doing calls for art.  And, well, about half of them are good fits for my photography – so I am going to submit like mad over the next week.  I take all of these photos – I need to start doing something with them.

Also, I need to get the kid/family photos out of the catalogs with my other photography to make life easier when I’m considering submitting to shows.  Also, I should probably move the erotic photography out of both just for my own sanity.  You have no idea how many times someone wants to see the family photos, and it launches me into a mild panic attack while I try to remember if erotic photos could be encountered.

Yeah. It’s time.

I mean, I have everything I need to print photos for display now – and cut them down to the right size for framing. And I even have the framing and all down.  (Yay teacher discount!)

Plus, this is the reality. I am more interested these days in taking photos and printing them off and showing them off – than I am managing fucked up projects that are just different flavors of the same thing.  I do get satisfaction when I get shit pulled together and dragged in the direction it needs to be dragged. But it’s not what gets me out of bed anymore.  I guess I’m realizing that I need to fill my time with more photography and less project management.

Or in other words – fill my days with more happy and soul-feeding activities and less annoying and soul-sucking activities.