Into the Wild: My Puppy, Lightroom, and Me

I’ve long held a romantic notion of going to a cabin in the woods and getting my catalog of 50,000 images better organized. The idea, of course, is to get away from all of the distractions of everyday life and concentrate on a singular project. I think of writers and musicians who have done similar things, and I think of Thoreau. I also think of students and professionals getting away, if even to a hotel room in town, to study for the Bar Exam, Series 7, GMAT, or other important tests. So last week I did just that. I, along with our 4-month old puppy, Elsa, rented a cabin in Sula, Montana, and worked on image management for three days.

Sula is just an hour-and-a-half drive from Missoula, down through the Bitterroot Valley along the Lewis & Clark Trail, but feels like a world away. What’s most sticking there is how intensely quiet it is; remarkably dark at night, and quiet day and night. With no cell phone coverage and some spotty WiFi, it was the perfect place to do the work I wanted to do. Being 80 miles south of Missoula and 50 miles north of Salmon, ID, it’s really in the middle of nowhere. That said, my cabin was a stones throw away from Highway 93, the Sula General Store, and a Conoco station, so “into the wild” might be stretching it a bit.

A couple of the highlights of our stay there were taking Elsa for a run on a winding gravel road up in the mountains with a creek running beside us, grilling brats over an open fire at night, and a prime rib dinner at the Naughty Moose, just 10 miles up the road. Simple life, out there, and I couldn’t sit in front of the computer all day long!

And after a few days there, I had completely revamped the way I organize my folders and images in Lightroom. For those interested, I changed from organizing folders by dates to by geographic locations, which makes much more sense for how I think of my photography.

Little mini-adventures like this are one of the reasons I love living in western Montana. I hope to get back again soon!