How I uses these is I carry them in my shirt pocket and whenever I want to shoot a series of images for a panorama I simply take out the “Panorama Image Set” card hold it out in front of the camera and shoot a picture of it See Example. I then shoot my series of images for the panorama and then shoot the card again indicating the end of the series of images. So now when I get home and look at the images on the memory card it is very easy to tell where the series of photos start and stop for a panorama. I make sure and leave the photos of the cards in when I catalog the images using an image management program. Also as long filenames remain in the proper order I will always know where the series of images for each panorama start and stop See Example.

If you wanted to take this one step further you could create different folders on your computers hard drive for each series of panorama images. I don’t do this because I find it just adds to the complexity of the whole thing, but you can do it if you wish.

For my set of organizational cards I created the following:

1. Panorama Image Set
2. Aperture Priority
3. Shutter Priority
4. Manual Mode
5. Special Shoot #1
6. Special Shoot #2
7. Special Shoot #3
8. Special Shoot #4
9. Special Shoot #5
10. Special Shoot #6
11. Special Shoot #7
12. Special Shoot #8
13. Special Shoot #9
14. Special Shoot #10
15. Special Shoot #11
16. Special Shoot #12

Now the “Special Shoot” cards I use for any images that I am doing something interesting with say for example long shutter speed while panning the camera, or if I am shooting the beach and do a long shutter speed on a tripod so that the waves come out soft and blurred. I simply use one of the “Special Shoot” cards to indicate the start and stop of those images and then quickly jot down on a small note pad the shoot number that matches the number on the card I used and what it was. This way when I get home I can find and do what I need to do with those special images. By keeping my artsy images separated out like this it makes easy to find the images to see if what I am doing is working or if I need to work on that skill or technique some more. This also keeps me from having to carry around 100 cards covering every possible shooting situation.

What’s nice about this setup is these cards are small and easy to carry with you. And if you don’t want to do “Special Shoot #” you can create cards for any type of special shooting conditions that you want and label the cards accordingly. You can create as many cards as you want as well, though I do recommend that you keep the number down. If you have a hundred cards to sort through to find the one you want it could get old really fast. That is why I like the “Special Shoot #” cards. As I use the special shoot cards I rubber band them together so that I know which ones have been used.

Now I used heat lamination for my cards See Example. I have a laminator in the office and I used heavy laminate pouches for them so they would be tough and durable. I also made sure and placed them in the pouch so that there was as much space around the cards as possible so that I could cut them out and leave a 1/4-inch or so of sealed pouch around the outside edges of the cards. If you trim to exactly the edge of the card the laminate with use will start to peel up. If you leave a nice edge that is fused laminate to laminate it won’t be able to do that.

I also didn’t worry about each cut out card being 100% the same size as the others. I got them pretty close to each other and I did this with scissors. If you don’t have a lamination machine you can get the laminating done at most places like Kinko’s, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Staples, etc. If you want all of your cards the exact same size then buy laminate pouches to match the size of your index cards. For example on Amazon.com I found a package of laminate pouches specifically for 3x5-inch index cards. This saves you from having to cut the cards out after laminating. The only laminate pouches I had were 8-1/2x11-inch ones and so I made do with those.

You can also do cold laminating. If you know someone with a Xyron machine (used mostly in paper crafting and scrapbooking) you can get double sided laminate cartridges for this and so that is an option as well. You can also buy self-sticking cold laminate pouches at most office supply stores as well, think of these as sheets of clear contact paper, they can be more trouble since they are very easy to wrinkle and get air bubbles in.

What You Need For This Project

1. Avery Inkjet or Laser Printable 3x5-inch index cards (3 to a sheet)
2. Laminating machine (or take the cards to Kinko’s or someplace and have them do it). You can also use one of the cold laminating methods mentioned above.
3. 8-1/2x11-inch laminating pouches or laminating pouches for 3x5-inch index cards.
4. Microsoft Word or some other program that has support for the Avery index cards that you buy, you go by the number for what you get. In Word you go to the Envelope and Labels function and then choose the option for the index cards that you bought. I used Avery 5388.
   

Note: If you don’t want to print them or if you don’t want to buy the Avery index cards you can use regular index cards and hand write the information on them. Use a nice fat black pen to do it so that when you photography it is easy to read even at small zoom amounts.

Note: I don’t recommend going any larger than 4x6-inch (in case you want to use 4x6-inch photo paper) and even that I feel is too large. You want these cards easy to carry around and they need to be able to go in to a shirt pocket. If you want smaller the 3X5-inch ones try Avery’s business card papers. You can also get laminate pouches sized to the business cards as well. Just remember when going smaller than the 3x5-inch that you want them large enough to read the text on the cards even when looking at the thumbnail in your image management software. That is why I feel the 3X5-inch is the perfect size.