File / management / organization

[RandySmith]

I've been asked by a few folks about their interest in purchasing a digital camera, what to buy, etc.. which I'm sure anyone who does this more than "occaisionally" is asked about as well ... although my organization skills are far from perfect, and I certainly wish they could be better ... I do respond to these questions as a #1 priority in "getting into" photography, is to have a very solid and organized approach to identifying, and storing their digital files. I don't know how many times I am asked "do you still have that photo of ... " and either I can go right to my back-up DVD and pull it off, or I can go to an external drive and then locate the file. Sometimes I can locate a file in a matter of seconds, other times I can search for what seems like a very long time. I'm trying to learn lightroom, and coupled with Adobe bridge, lightroom, and "explorer" to manage and locate files.

I know there are a lot of seminars and classes focused on photoshop, and the tuning of skills for photography but I don't see any kind of classes in creating a really good organization. I don't know if this is an individual thing, or if this kind of thing would be good to have a seminar by someone who is very talented at file management, etc.

Any thoughts appreciated.
Randy