just catching up [buffalo bayou regatta and batch rename]

                                                          ©2011 Katya Horner (All Photos and Videos)

 
Not all of the scenes that I photograph get "repurposed" into visual hyperbole.  Sometimes, actually most of the time, they remain fairly true to their original presentation.  That's the case with the photos in this blog post -- scenes from The Bayou.

So let me get you all caught up -- a couple of weeks ago I photographed Houston's super canoeing and kayaking event, the Buffalo Bayou Regatta.  This was my fourth year capturing the event for Buffalo Bayou Partnership, and it was the best yet, with 425 boats and over 700 paddlers!  Woohoo!  There must be some truth to the happy endorphins that physical activity unleashes on us because Regatta participants are some of the nicest, happiest people I come across all year.

This year the promotion of the event went far and wide, including the both the Texas Monthly and New York Times websites.  And guess what?  They used one of my photos (cropped) from last year's Regatta!  How awesome is that?!  I was positively giddy.  You can see the NYTimes article here and the Texas Monthly article here. 

                                 

So I typically process an average of 25 photos from any given photoshoot.  The Regatta?  Almost 500.  Proof that insanity prevails.  So I was sitting there, after hours of light processing, when I realized that I had switched the prefix in the photo titles about midway through.  Ugh.  One by one, I started changing names.  The monotony was agonizing..  It wasn't until I was almost done that I decided to look up "batch rename" on google.  Low and behold, a really simple way to do it in Adobe Bridge.  Hallelujah!

Since it was a revelation to me, I thought I'd share it with all of you who might not yet know how to do it.  Low production value, but if it can help one person I'm thrilled. 


tips and such: batch renaming in Adobe Bridge from Katya Horner on Vimeo.

As I mentioned in the video, there are also options for batch renaming using programs other than Adobe Bridge.  One program that you can download for free is IrfanView.  I used it years ago to resize a large number of files and apparently it also allows you to batch rename...quickly.  Thanks to the wonderful Matt Penning for the recommendation.