So after taking iView MediaPro for a whirl, I've decided it's just too slow for my computer. Each time I click on something it goes into the "Not Responding" mode on my computer. I've tried having the catalog locally but the problem doesn't go away. I don't plan to load my photos on my laptop so I don't know if that will fix the problem as I didn't try.

In the meantime, I am taking the opportunity to use Adobe Bridge (part of Photoshop) to catalog my photos with keywords and ratings. This will take me a good week or so to finish up. These ratings and keywords should be recognizable by most programs and are written directly into my .jpg files.

In addition, I'm going to test drive both Flickr and Zooomr as photo galleries. More on this soon.

I've amassed almost 5000 digital photos during my 4 years as a digital camera owner. Finding a particular photo is getting more and more difficult so I decided to look into Digital Asset Management. The bible for DAM is "The DAM Book" which I recommend reading if you are interested. Basically the approach advocates adding keywords and ratings for all images and to have multiple backups of your images.

While I do currently backup my photos as part of my regular backup, I don't back them up separately, and for now that's ok (2 copies exist). However, I have really been slacking off on the keywords and ratings of my images. As part of a plan to get organized (now that I have a lot of time on my hands) I have decided to rate and keyword all my images.

Before I get started, I thought I'd take a look to see if I should change my DAM program. I have been using Photoshop Elements 5 (previously 3 and 2) to manage my photos but it is getting slower and slower to navigate and find the photos I'm looking for and I can't access my catalog from my 2nd computer, a laptop. So I downloaded trials of both Lightroom 1.0 and iView MediaPro 3.1 to see if I might prefer one of those programs instead.

While Lightroom's DAM features are quite powerful, it does miss a few key points that iView MediaPro has:

unable to DAM files that are no longer connected (i.e. files are removed and are on DVD/CD can't be keyworded or rated) - this would also include a disconnected laptop where the files are stored on the network unable to reset paths (if file structure is changed can't reconnect files except on an individual basis - not fun with 5000 files)

unable to run a catalog across a network (this means the catalog can't be stored on one computer i.e. server and accessed from a client i.e. laptop - this might not be important for most people but this my preferred setup. I like to use programs from my laptop but run everything off my desktop/server. This makes for easy backups as only the server needs to be backed up. My dream setup would be to have two catalogs so that I could access it from both locations including as well as while disconnected from the network and sync the two catalogs back together!

OTOH, you are able to edit photos in Lightroom (similar to PSE) whereas iView MediaPro only calls the editing program of your choice to take over. Lightroom will also convert NEF files whereas iView MediaPro won't (you need to import/convert them using Adobe Camera RAW/DNG converter).

So what's my verdict? At this point I'm struggling to decide. On the one hand it'd be nice to have only one application to deal with (Lightroom does everything) but it's lack of flexibility when it comes to using network drives and it's inability to reset the paths as a workaround doesn't work for me either. I expect that I will probably re-evaluate Lightroom in a future version but until then, I won't be using it.

J has moved into his own bedroom with a real bed and not a crib. It's sometimes hard to convince him to go to bed or take a nap as he can just get out of bed and won't stay put. Today he fell asleep in the rocking chair after refusing to get into his own bed.

I've just been tagged by Wonder Woman. This isn't the first time I've been tagged, but is the first time for this blog, so I'll go with it. So here are 5 things you might not know about me.

1. I've been doing genealogy research for 16 years, but still manage to be the youngest genealogist at most events that I attend :)

2. I am still working on my first family history "book" on my Rayner/Aggio families of Marylebone, London. This is my father's maternal line and is a sad tale of 4 generations of Londoners in the workhouse.

3. I have genealogy cousins in Britain, Canada, Australia. I am extremely grateful to all of them for their generosity when it comes to sharing information and working on our family trees together.

4. My genealogy articles been published several times online, but am about to be published for the first time in print (Internet Genealogy magazine - Feb/Mar 2007 issue).

5. My bigger goal is to write a book about the use of technology to support your family history research. Not just using genealogy software or the internet, but making use of other resources such as digital cameras, video, scanners, printers, PDAs, photo editing software and any technology device during the research process. This will also include a large chapter on using the reporting features of genealogy software to analyze what you really know about your ancestors.

About 1 month ago I uploaded 4 photos to iStockPhoto.com, a stock photography site that sells your photos paying you a commission. Well yesterday I sold my first photo. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rich yet, but I have earned 92 cents US and bragging rights that someone actually values my work.

Here is a link to the photo.

I am not sure if I am going to continue to pursue stock photography but it is encouraging (and flattering) to have someone purchase a photo you take.

In celebration of black history month, Ancestry has also released some new records. You can check out African Amercian records here http://landing.ancestry.com/aahistory/default.aspx. These records include slave narratives, US Colored Troops records, Freedmen's Bureau records, Freedman's Bank records, books, WWI draft cards and a large amount of photos.

Records to be added in the near future include Freedmen's Bureau Marriage records and Southern Claims Commission Records.

If you have African American roots you should check out this site as well as www.familyseach.org who also have a large collection of African American records online (as well as their Family History Library Catalog with access to many more records on films through the FamilyHistory Centers).