My brain is dead. I just sat (and sat some more) at this here computer, re-computerizing the photos section of this site, and henceforth killing my brain cells as one coding problem plagued me after another. But now it is over (the coding part at least), and I am quite happy with the results.
However, if I have learned anything during this experience (aside from retarded amounts of coma-inducing XML), it is this: always embed your captions into your file info. I didn’t have captions on my previous photo section because their placement looked awkward. Now, with the new system, I have more control, and I wanted them back. But well, it was pretty impossible to find a lot of my newspaper captions… because I am dumb and did not embed them into the file info. At my last job, I simply had to write the captions down on paper and hand them to whoever types them into the computer (and yes, a mess if they lost the piece of paper). And that is all I did. I thought I saved hard copies of editions that had photos I liked, but when I searched my storage shed in the backyard, I found that I didn’t save too many copies at all (that may be because the printing press at that paper made every edition worth throwing away). And so, without the captions, I try to remember as much as I can, which is enough in most cases. Some photos I’m at a complete loss for. I had to take out some photos. The internet helps in some cases, but not many. I looked up some old sports brackets, rosters, etc. I dug up info for photos I had no knowledge of before. And thank god, there was one very important photo that I was smart enough to email the names to myself when I quit my job. Of course, I didn’t remember that until like half an hour after I began my epic quest to find the names in a stack of papers. I have all my notepads, every single one of them, from forever, but I’d rather shoot myself before I try to dig through 20,000 names, a thousand of which probably have the note “blue shirt” next to them.
So anyway, if you check out the humans and sports sections and are wondering why there are some captions with a missing name, or a whole missing caption, this is why. It’s not that I’m a bad journalist who forgot to get them, it’s that I’m a bad journalist that didn’t archive her photos properly.
Nowadays, all my critter photos are renamed to the animal’s names within a few hours of taking them, so that’s all the info I really need to know. Most of my old work photos (except the last job of course) have the file info embedded, but are buried on totally unorganized CDs that I will try to get to when my brain isn’t so fried. And I will probably do more internet research later in the week to get the remaining sports captions. There are a few photos that I remember where I took them and can email someone there, and I just may do that a year or two later. You non-photographers are probably wondering what the big deal is, but other photographers will understand. I’m not even sure why I care so much (I don’t even work at newspapers anymore), but well, I just do… and I must have the captions. The end.
Moral of the story: photographers, be not stupid like me. Always embed your captions! ALWAYS!
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