ValerieMorrisonPhotography.com

I love almost everything about photography, except having to come up with a descriptive name for my photographs after the photo is in final. I recently changed the custom file name my cameras gives its images to reflect the camera used (e.g. for my Olympus EM5, all of the files look something like this: EM50001.jpg or EM50001.orf) for ease of identification and filing.

However, after my images are filed by category and stored on my hard drive, I give all of my images personal names.  Mainly because I don’t know what EM50001.jpg is, but open up any one of the thousands of images on my hard drive, tell me the personal name of the file and 9 times out of 10 I know exactly what I photographed.

I’m not chalking that up to my memory either, but because my photographic naming skills are less than impressive.  If I photograph a bag of nuts, guess what I’m naming the photo? You guessed it, Bag of Nuts.  It’s not pretty, but it’s more identifiable than photo EM50001.  I try to be inventive and come up with a not so obvious name for an image, but often times I am at a loss for a creative name.

Just recently I came up with an idea that buys me a little time away from photo Bug on the Wall to something a lot more meaningful. I use the first names of people I know and add a part of speech at the end.  Tada, that’s it.

Below are a few images using my new naming system. Smile if you recognize your name.   How do you name your photographs?  Do you keep the file name the camera assigns or do you prefer personal names?

natural's peace

rosa's rose

ron's studio

max's cove

ashley's water