Managing Pictures?

[DoubleRidge]

Looking at a laptop that would be dedicated to nothing but organizing and storing trail cam pics and documenting habitat projects, aerial images, etc.
Tired of trying to manage images on phone and work computer. Looking forward to having a larger screen with much more storage space. So a fresh start you might say. Would love to hear suggestions on how you manage images...any special software? or any other suggestions to get started off on the right foot...Thanks.

 

[Ski]

I have a file for each property that trail cam pics go into. This year I started files for just this year. Each pic/vid gets renamed with what's in pic and the date. For instance "capt. hook 2nov23", or "chase on knob plot 2nov23". Keep it simple but easy for reference.

I then have a separate excel sheet with a target buck accounting for each column. Every day he shows up gets recorded. If daytime it's highlighted in yellow. Night is highlighted in blue. No pictures just dates under a buck's name either in blue or yellow. The purpose is to have an easy visual for picking out patterns not only for an individual buck through the years, but also as a property to see hot daylight activity days. When I see yellow 2nov19, 2nov21, 2nov22, then guess where I'm going to be on 2nov23. Not only do I know there's likely to be daylight activity that day but also which bucks I'm likely to see. I've also noticed a correlation between yellow days and doe estrus, which in hindsight accounts for the busy activity.

I have a file for dead stuff. It has everything from deer to fish. It's the "I love me" file lol.

Last but not least I have the forestry plan file with all the work involved in that. It isn't necessarily habitat purposed but it parallels it.

 

[LenS]

Google photos is pretty simple and straight forward for keeping track of your photos, although you will start pushing the free storage limits fairly quickly if you have a high number of videos. It is simple to set up folders however you choose and store them on Google Drive. You can also use Google's version of Excel, called Sheets, and set up the info like Ski recommended. A dedicated computer coupled with a 1TB SSD will get you started with a lot of storage capacity. A 1TB Sandisk drive is on sale on Amazon today for $69.

 

[BSK]

Portable back-up drives and Excel Spreadsheets will become your best friends!

I say portable back-up drives because I never expected my directories of trail-cam pictures to get so big. But they did, in a hurry. Especially when I switched to videos. I now have a 5-terabyte back-up drive I copy all my trail-cam pictures/videos to. This keeps the hard drive of my PC a little cleaner.

I still use some old-school relational databases to store and calculate information from my trail-camera pictures, but Excel Spreadsheets (or anybody's spreadsheets) are much easier to work with, especially once you learn to write complex formulas for calculating numbers.

Ski touched on some of the ways to store and work with data in a spreadsheet. Honestly, the list of possible ways to look at the data are endless. I would highly recommend first deciding what information you want to get out of all the data storage. What information would be useful to you as a hunter? Perhaps, for bucks, times pictures were taken based on buck age would be interesting. Perhaps just noting buck pictures during daylight. And as a subgroup, types of camera set-ups that produce the most daylight pictures. I've found noting pictures/videos (especially videos) where buck-doe chases occur is helpful. It helps me pinpoint the peak of breeding each year. Are there traditional dates where the most daylight buck activity occurs?

And of course, from a herd monitoring perspective, there is always the data collected in a photo census: number of unique bucks and their ages, total number of buck, doe, and fawn pictures. From this data all sorts of important information can be gathered and compared over time.

 

[BSK]

As I mentioned above, the ways to analyze data are endless. An analysis I have found interesting/useful is to look at the number of unique bucks photographed using my property on a daily basis (as well as looking at the trend through a 3 or 5-day running mean). What I've found is that, over the years, there are traditional dates for my property when the most different bucks are using the property. Exactly why these dates keep popping up year after year is the mystery yet to be solved, but from a hunting standpoint, knowing what days of the year the most different bucks will be using your property can be very helpful.

This graph does not display how many times each buck was photographed per day, just how many unique older bucks were photographed on the property each calendar day for this year (so far). Averaging this kind of data over many years can be very interesting, as again you might find there are traditional dates for the peaks and valleys which can be taken advantage of by a hunter.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I have a file for each property that trail cam pics go into. This year I started files for just this year. Each pic/vid gets renamed with what's in pic and the date. For instance "capt. hook 2nov23", or "chase on knob plot 2nov23". Keep it simple but easy for reference.

I then have a separate excel sheet with a target buck accounting for each column. Every day he shows up gets recorded. If daytime it's highlighted in yellow. Night is highlighted in blue. No pictures just dates under a buck's name either in blue or yellow. The purpose is to have an easy visual for picking out patterns not only for an individual buck through the years, but also as a property to see hot daylight activity days. When I see yellow 2nov19, 2nov21, 2nov22, then guess where I'm going to be on 2nov23. Not only do I know there's likely to be daylight activity that day but also which bucks I'm likely to see. I've also noticed a correlation between yellow days and doe estrus, which in hindsight accounts for the busy activity.

I have a file for dead stuff. It has everything from deer to fish. It's the "I love me" file lol.

Last but not least I have the forestry plan file with all the work involved in that. It isn't necessarily habitat purposed but it parallels it.

This is exactly the type of information I was hoping to hear...thank you...I'm looking forward to being more organized. Currently some pics are on a tablet, some are on my phone then some are stored on my work computer....and its just not easy to manage...appreciate the input....thanks.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Google photos is pretty simple and straight forward for keeping track of your photos, although you will start pushing the free storage limits fairly quickly if you have a high number of videos. It is simple to set up folders however you choose and store them on Google Drive. You can also use Google's version of Excel, called Sheets, and set up the info like Ski recommended. A dedicated computer coupled with a 1TB SSD will get you started with a lot of storage capacity. A 1TB Sandisk drive is on sale on Amazon today for $69.

Great suggestion...our IT guy at church made the same comment...get an external drive as a back up and to free up space on the computer....appreciate the input....thanks.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Portable back-up drives and Excel Spreadsheets will become your best friends!

I say portable back-up drives because I never expected my directories of trail-cam pictures to get so big. But they did, in a hurry. Especially when I switched to videos. I now have a 5-terabyte back-up drive I copy all my trail-cam pictures/videos to. This keeps the hard drive of my PC a little cleaner.

I still use some old-school relational databases to store and calculate information from my trail-camera pictures, but Excel Spreadsheets (or anybody's spreadsheets) are much easier to work with, especially once you learn to write complex formulas for calculating numbers.

Ski touched on some of the ways to store and work with data in a spreadsheet. Honestly, the list of possible ways to look at the data are endless. I would highly recommend first deciding what information you want to get out of all the data storage. What information would be useful to you as a hunter? Perhaps, for bucks, times pictures were taken based on buck age would be interesting. Perhaps just noting buck pictures during daylight. And as a subgroup, types of camera set-ups that produce the most daylight pictures. I've found noting pictures/videos (especially videos) where buck-doe chases occur is helpful. It helps me pinpoint the peak of breeding each year. Are there traditional dates where the most daylight buck activity occurs?

And of course, from a herd monitoring perspective, there is always the data collected in a photo census: number of unique bucks and their ages, total number of buck, doe, and fawn pictures. From this data all sorts of important information can be gathered and compared over time.

Thanks BSK....was hoping to hear from you knowing you manage so many pictures and videos....and your reply is further confirmation that an external drive is smart money spent...also the laptop I'm looking at is Windows based so Excel will be available and I'm familiar with Excel from using it at work....so I look very forward to being able to manage trail cam pics and videos along with herd monitoring data, habitat project progress, etc. all on one computer...I really appreciate your input...I'm looking forward to a fresh start.

 

[Ski]

I look very forward to being able to manage trail cam pics and videos along with herd monitoring data, habitat project progress, etc. all on one computer...I really appreciate your input...I'm looking forward to a fresh start.

Just wait til you start picking out patterns that you can use to plan your hunts. I've learned more about deer behavior and habits from interpreting and organizing trail cam data than I have from a lifetime of being in the woods.

 

[DoubleRidge]

As I mentioned above, the ways to analyze data are endless. An analysis I have found interesting/useful is to look at the number of unique bucks photographed using my property on a daily basis (as well as looking at the trend through a 3 or 5-day running mean). What I've found is that, over the years, there are traditional dates for my property when the most different bucks are using the property. Exactly why these dates keep popping up year after year is the mystery yet to be solved, but from a hunting standpoint, knowing what days of the year the most different bucks will be using your property can be very helpful.

This graph does not display how many times each buck was photographed per day, just how many unique older bucks were photographed on the property each calendar day for this year (so far). Averaging this kind of data over many years can be very interesting, as again you might find there are traditional dates for the peaks and valleys which can be taken advantage of by a hunter.

Very interesting use of the data...Im ready to be more organized...and not to go off topic...but this year for example I basically texted myself following each deer sighting along with a description of what deer it was and what they were doing....so basically I have a time stamp and I know which days were all day hunts and which were only AM or only PM....I would also include special details in the text...years ago before the smart phone I literally had a small spiral notebook I would keep notes in....so back to being more organized...I currently have all these notes in my phone....but have no structured way to organize them?...hoping that with a dedicated computer, that has Excel, I can use and store this type information in a much more user friendly way....thanks again for the input and direction.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Just wait til you start picking out patterns that you can use to plan your hunts. I've learned more about deer behavior and habits from interpreting and organizing trail cam data than I have from a lifetime of being in the woods.

Looking forward to having more organized data that can be used in a more efficient user friendly way....currently having pics, video and data in three different locations isnt working for me.

 

[DaveTN]

Become knowledgeable with "Windows File Explorer". It will do everything you need to do as far as storage and organization goes.

Have a good plan on how you want to name and sort photos. Something that makes sense to you.

Hard drives fail. And they are usually unrecoverable or extremely expensive to recover when they do. Have either portable hard drives or cloud storage to back-up your photos. You are as good as your last backup.

No back-up software is required if all you are doing is backing up your photos. Simply copy them to the external hard drive.

Excel can do anything you want as far as documenting your photos or what is in them. Excel just isn't very user friendly, but there are plenty of online answers.

 

[gtk]

i wrote some software several years ago, that would allow me to upload my pics to a database, pull the moon-phase and weather info at the time of the pic/location, then allow you to classify/identify bucks for reporting. It would generate graphs based on whatever criteria you used (bucks/camera location/total deer/etc..)

the moon phase reports is what i found most interesting.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Become knowledgeable with "Windows File Explorer". It will do everything you need to do as far as storage and organization goes.

Have a good plan on how you want to name and sort photos. Something that makes sense to you.

Thanks....I'll check out windows file explorer and you bring up a good point about having a plan on how to name and sort photos...starting out on the right foot and being consistent I'm sure will reduce much of the disorganized frustration I'm currently dealing with......I've ran into this at work where I'll save a file....know I did....then months later struggle to find where I saved it and what the title was?...appreciate the suggestions...thanks.

 

[BSK]

Just wait til you start picking out patterns that you can use to plan your hunts. I've learned more about deer behavior and habits from interpreting and organizing trail cam data than I have from a lifetime of being in the woods.

Yes sir!

 

[BSK]

As far as organizing, many different ways to go about that. Personally, I have a directory for each property I'm working with. Under that directory are subdirectories for each year's data. Within each year's folder are pictures of all the unique bucks (sequentially numbered as I find the bucks in the pictures). In addition, I have a directory for all of the pictures collected that year. These are organized card-pull by card-pull. basically, I use the date of the card pull as the directory name. With each of those card-pull directories are a subdirectory for each camera (either named or numbered) and all of the pictures from that camera pulled that date.

 

[DoubleRidge]

i wrote some software several years ago, that would allow me to upload my pics to a database, pull the moon-phase and weather info at the time of the pic/location, then allow you to classify/identify bucks for reporting. It would generate graphs based on whatever criteria you used (bucks/camera location/total deer/etc..)

the moon phase reports is what i found most interesting.

That sounds interesting...and I've seen software available that manages the information in a way similar to how you described...I can develop or design a spreadsheet in excel to plot data...but writing programs or developing software is above my pay grade

 

[Ski]

I know it's cliche and even off-putting to some folks, but this is exactly why I name bucks. When you're keeping track of many different individual bucks and most span multiple years, it's imperative to assign identity for the purpose of organization and reference.

For instance a very big mature 10pt showed up this year and I didn't immediately recognize him. But by looking at previous years I realized it was "High and Tight". I'd had pics of him for years. So searching only that name I was able to see all of his favorite haunts and when he liked being there. Using that info I was able to get within bow range of a 5.5-6.5yr old buck three times in two weeks. I never shot him because his right beam got broken off but predictably getting within 20yds of a mature buck three different times was quite affirming that the system worked. Had I not named him he would have been just another 8pt or 10pt in a file full of them and I'd have likely not narrowed down all the historical data I had on him to put together a hunt plan.

 

[deerhunter10]

I don't go as in depth as some but I have saved files for each property then a separate file per cameras then separate file for shooter bucks and then up and comers. I do put them in a spread sheet but I'm not as organized as some of these guys and also when I really started it was a mess that I had to redo. I am getting more and more organized because I am fascinated with the data. Also I use cell cameras and at the end of the season I download the pictures off of them to. I have a laptop just for deer and deer hunting and I back it up so if something happens I don't lose everything.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I don't go as in depth as some but I have saved files for each property then a separate file per cameras then separate file for shooter bucks and then up and comers. I do put them in a spread sheet but I'm not as organized as some of these guys and also when I really started it was a mess that I had to redo. I am getting more and more organized because I am fascinated with the data. Also I use cell cameras and at the end of the season I download the pictures off of them to. I have a laptop just for deer and deer hunting and I back it up so if something happens I don't lose everything.

I have the same plan with having a laptop for all things deer and wildlife habitat projects...and the more I read the more I believe having one dedicated device is going to solve many of my issues.