I agree with everyone who said to get an organizational photo system plan that you can stick with going forward. This is just a suggestion from a similar experience when I worked with on several different computers and hard drives. Once you have Lightroom started and are in the Library Mode. Look on the left side where it says ‘Folders’. This will tell you where all you pictures are located. If you have set up your ‘photo organizational’ system you are going to use going forward, you can rearrange your photos from this panel within Lightroom so you don’t mess up your Lightroom catalog because you are doing it within Lightroom and it is making location adjustments as you move your files. You can move whole directories - folders - or individual files in this panel until you get your photo’s organized the way you want them. Remember- use the Library Module and the Folder section on the left side. It works just like Windows Explorer just within Lightroom and save you many headaches that you would have if you do it outside of Lightroom. It may tell you it can’t move these files/folders/directories but keep trying (as long as the directories/folders aren’t greyed out because that means Lightroom doesn’t know where they are). I move folders a lot and never know why it tells me it can’t move them but I keep trying to do it until it does. After you get everything moved and organized within Lightroom then look at the file structure in Windows Explorer and it should look exactly the same except now since you’ve done it through Lightroom, you don’t have to redo anything in Lightroom because it was included in all file relocations. After I relocate files/directories/photos I usually right click the main folder where my pictures are and click sync everything ’just in case’.

Everyone organizes differently. There are a bunch of organizational videos you can watch. I think the first one I watched was done by B&H. Another video talked about organizing by date which I have used now for quite a few years and really helps keep photos organized.
This maybe too much information, but I have been where you are and doing it this way really helps. The other day my granddaughter asked for a photo from 2015 and since everything is organized by date it was located in short order. Like I said, every one organizes differently, but the most helpful Lightroom organizational video I watched said to have a folder named ‘## Pictures Go Here’ in the Main Picture Directory and then have a subdirectory of the year (2022) then a folder of the month (12-December 2022) then Lightroom will import the photos by date and create a day/date directory under the month. After an Lightroom import and the dates added, I then go into Library Mode (Folder option on left side) right click on date folder and add a description of what the photos were…. Example…. If the import folder date after a Lightroom import was 2022-12-04 I would put my curser on the folder name (in Lightroom) and rename the folder ‘2022-12-04 Grandkids Brunch with Santa’ so I can quickly identify what happened on that date and it keeps it organized at the same time.

However you decide to organize your photos START NOW GOING FORWARD with anything you put in Lightroom and get the rest organized as you have time. I started my organization method years ago from one of the videos I watched and am still reorganizing because I have between 25-30 external harddrives to organize and eliminate duplicates in!🤣. Sorry this is soooooo long but I have been where you are when I didn’t realize how many photos I was going to have on so many devices! If you can watch some instructional Lightroom organizational videos, what seems like crazy stuff will start making sense.

Thought some of you may enjoy this article.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/these-are-highest-resolution-photos-ever-taken-snowflakes-180976710/

In our family you have to vote in order to be able to complain. After we vote we text all family members an ‘I Voted’ sticker with the caption ‘I can complain now’. This past week my husband included a picture of his 95 year old mother walking out after early voting with her sticker on!!

As said above, too many people have fought for our right to vote.

We just went through the same scenario. We have Viasat (Satellite internet) instead of Hughesnet. We did the trial with Hulu and YouTubeTV. We liked them both but went with YoutubeTV because we live between 2 locations and it easily switches locations and we can get local news for each location just by changing your home location. With Hulu, you can only change your home location 4 times per year so we would have had to have two accounts where with YouTubeTV we just need one account. I like the feature on YouTubeTV that you can arrange your programming channels in any order you want them. We only watch a handful of channels so those are on top of the grid and rarely have to scroll though the channel list. YouTubeTV also has unlimited program recording. You can also watch TV on you phone/mobile device.

One piece of advice, I’m not sure if you were a DirecTV customer before ATT took over, but if you weren’t and are an ATT/DirecTV customer it is best to stop your service as close to the end of your billing cycle as possible. ATT does not refund and unused days after you quit their service. We discontinued two of the DirecTV services so we had one of each scenarios. Since we had been customers of DirecTV since 1996, they refunded our unused days without a problem. It was just the opposite dealing with ATT. To put it mildly, it was a nightmare! I wish you luck if you decide to discontinue your DirecTV service if you have to deal with the ATT side. When our daughters family moved last year, she was on the phone for 5 hours getting them to discontinue ATT/ Uverse.

We started streaming in June and have not missed Directv at all. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Nice2MiTu 3.5" USB External Floppy Disk Drive Portable 1.44 MB FDD USB Drive Plug and Pl... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KX8EMOO/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_i_gT2gFb...



3.5" USB External Floppy Disk Drive Portable 1.44 MB FDD for PC Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RXEWOAA/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_i_OT2gFb...

Several people I know will be going back to Hulu with the price increase because they like HULU better and changed to save the extra $15. We hardly watch any TV anymore and our favorite channels are at the top of the ‘Live TV’ grid. I do like how YoutubeTV lets you arrange the channels you watch. We rarely go through the list and watch anything other than our 3 favorite channels and never watch anything on the channels YoutubeTV just added. We ‘cut the cord’ about 2 months ago because DirecTV increased our price and we were paying a higher amount so my husband could get the golf channel. We had DirecTV at 2 locations and they increased our price to over $400 per month for the 2 locations. I called to see if they could decrease my price and got the run around and they told me I had to call their loyalty department.... there was no offer to transfer me (when DirecTV wasn’t owned by AT&T they were fabulous but not so much now). I had been a loyal customer on autopay since 1996. I figured they really didn’t need my business and I could just stream everything like both my children’s families do..... so I tried Hulu and YoutubeTV as my children suggested. Both had the golf channel and all our sports channels. Liked being able to talk to a very nice human being at Hulu but went with YoutubeTV (who has no one you can talk to) because I can pay for it once a month and use it at two locations where I would have had to have 2 Hulu accounts because you can only change your home location 4 times per year and we change our location weekly. So far have not missed DirecTV and will stay with YoutubeTV as long as I only have to pay for one monthly subscription. Who knows what will be coming down the pike with modern technology!!

I have a Canon 5D IV and purchased a Canon 16-35mm F4 Lens and it works well with my camera and didn’t cost as much as my other L lenses. There are other Canon 16-35mm L lenses, but for as much as I use a landscape lens it was the perfect choice for me. I’m pleased with having it for my wide angle choice. I only use it for landscapes. If I used it for other things maybe the Canon 16-35 2.8 would have been the better choice but I LOVE my Canon 24-70mm 2.8 II L and my Canon 70-200mm 2.8 II L lenses and use them most of the time for everything.

Good luck with whatever you choose! I suggest renting whatever you are thinking about buying before you buy it. Renting lenses before purchasing has saved me lots of money because if I had purchased some that I rented, I would have wasted lots of money on lenses I would never have been happy with. But by renting lenses, I discovered it also cost me more money because the lenses I liked were not inexpensive. In summary, after I rented and purchased what I liked I haven’t desired any new lenses because I loved the ones I have.

Thanks for trying! There is a free login. I didn’t have a subscription either the other day when she told me it would be published, but went on the NYT site and just used the free subscription.

Thank you!

Thanks! I’ll let her know!

This is an article that is in today’s New York Times. It was written by a good family friend who is a published author. I was on the phone with her the other day when she found out that it was going to be published. It talks about the coronavirus but from a different perspective.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/opinion/coronavirus-trucking.html

I assign drive letters for all my external hard drives because it makes Lightroom much easier to work with. I am currently trying to get all my pictures organized and make several copies of my pictures as I organize them. As I am doing this, several of my external hard drives are plugged into my monitor and they appear as the same drive as they were assigned every time I turn on my computer and monitor. I put a label on each external hard drive as to what I’ve named the external hard drive and what the drive letter it has been assigned. I guess if it ever appeared incorrectly, I would just go into disk management and reassign it the same letter. I also keep a spreadsheet of what letter I assigned what drive.

Maybe this link will help:
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/assign-permanent-letter-removable-usb-drive-windows/

Have fun and enjoy yourself! Charleston is my favorite city and have enjoyed it for 35 years. We go about 6 times per year. Hope the weather is good for you and that you get lots of great photos and enjoy being with your daughter.

I have the Sony RX100 II and the Sony RX100 VI. I like them both but really like the popup viewfinder in the Sony RX100 VI. The Sony RX VI has a lens that goes from 24mm - 200mm while the Sony RX II Lens only goes from 24-100mm.



Took both Sony RX cameras to Europe this summer so my husband and I both had cameras. We went with another couple and when we got back I sent sent the pictures to the other couple on a digital picture frame. They said they looked like they were taken by a National Geographic photographer (and their daughter in law is a professional photographer). So yes, the cameras take great pictures.

You can shoot manual on the Sony RX’s although I rarely do even though I mostly shoot manual on my Canon 5D IV. On the Sony RX VI, I like that the digital screen on the back can be focused by touching where I want to focus like my Canon 5D IV.

A couple weeks ago my niece got married. She had quite a few photographers but no Videographer. I had my Sony’s with me and used the RX100 IV to video (4K) the ceremony and no one realized I even had a camera. I sat in the second row next to the isle where I rested the camera on my knee. Video came out great and she was thrilled.

Good Luck with whatever you purchase. And like many have said, you will probably just take along the small camera everywhere!