ARTICLE: Where's that document??

Not directly related to photography or design but if applied well, it's incredible how much it will help you continue concentrate on being creative, what is it? Good digital file management!

It dawned on me recently that I have a lot of digital files scattered over a lot of different hard-drives, phones and other devices. I realised that I had to sort this out as ultimately it was slowing me down looking for and preparing files for use. Not good. And then integrating the final work maintaining a common structure for the future.




So recently I've set up a completely revised file structure system which seems completely obvious if you think about it, but to consolidate all the files in ONE PLACE, ONE FOLDER, round them up into their
respective groups. Once there, decide how these groups can be broken down again, and again. Even this one big group (essentially the nest of folders) could be part of an even bigger group.

And you can't always rely on just using the 'spotlight' search like on the mac either. Example, I'm sure that if you spent five minutes casually browsing around some folders, you would come across some gems hidden somewhere. Therefore, not the best option.

You need to be able to almost visual where ANY particular file (or folder) is on your network. Now when I say network, i'm not necessarily talking about anything as complex as an 'office' network, I mean something as simple as a single computer, connected to the cloud with a Dropbox account, that can be accessed by any other computer or mobile device.

(If anyone doesn't know what Dropbox is, it's an amazing application for mac, pc or most 'smart' mobile devices, which is based around a folder generally located on a computer hard drive. The contents and file structure of this folder are continually synced into your online account in the cloud, which can then be securely accessed from any terminal on the planet, and best of all it's FREE with I believe 3GB of storage, payable for more).

With this kind of accessibility available, and if an organised file structure is followed, it makes all your selected files easily accessible from anywhere, leaving you to concentrate on creating.



Simon @ theblend
http://www.theblend.co.uk/

- Posted using BlogPress

Location:Barcelona,Spain

UPDATE: Re-freshed!

After several months of inactivity, and a few weeks of updates of theblend.co.uk, I feel like things are starting to get moving again. The (not so legal) version of Dreamweaver I was using to design the website was causing a lot of problems so I finally got the legal, paid-for version. Over the last few weeks, I've had the site down for updates, making improvements, adding sections and generally giving it a refresh and tidy up ready to display work and projects that I have planned for the future.





The newest section that has been added is the shop. Here there will be a selection of limited edition tshirts available to buy and in the future I would like to offer high quality produced photographic prints with a percentage being donated to a certain charity.

Currently the site primarily serves to display recent projects I've been working on, but for the future I have some ideas of how this can be developed further.

My intentions for this blog are to provide content and information at regular intervals. Some areas I intend to write about include:


Recent projects. Comments and updates on any projects I have in progress.

Photo shoots. On return from any interesting locations I will post updates here with results.

Tutorials. If I have discovered a technique recently, it would be good to create a tutorial and share this.

Product reviews. The equipment I use, I like to get to know it thoroughly, therefore after several weeks or months I intend to report my opinions on some of these experiences.

Inspirations. Anything that sparks off an interesting train of thought. An idea, a curious photo I've seen or taken, something that has happened, someone I met.


So in relation to theblend.co.uk, this is what I've been upto over the last few months, and now with hopefully no hold backs, this will serve as my plan for the ongoing future.

I want to end this post with a quote I read recently that I thought made a lot of sense, from a Louis Gerstner, once Chief Exec of IBM:

"Making it happen is possibly more important than developing a brilliant new strategy. Execution - making it happen - is the most unappreciated skill of a business leader."

Simon @ theblend
http://www.theblend.co.uk/

Location:Barcelona,Spain