In the past year I have added multiple cameras to better monitor the year round movements of the deer on one of my hunting areas and I have separated legal bucks from little bucks, and does. I'm wondering how everyone else keeps their multiple cameras organized so that the info is usable for the season and how the information is used to aide the hunting experience.
I keep them organized by Year, Gender, and Encounters. Generally If I only have one picture of a buck I don't pay much attention to it until he shows again. The hardest part for me is renaming the files so I don't overwrite any important ones.
I have a folder created for 2016 trail cams (2015 for last year) then in that i create a folder for each camera and delete non buck/non unique pictures. I dont sort by Individual deer just by camera the whole deer thing is too much work going through a few thousand pictures every couple weeks
I do in 2 different ways. First off, I rename all my files in a format that allows me to organize them by time & date. My files are all in the following format: YY-MM-DD HH:MM OriginalFileName. Past that, I organize them into folders by species. Add bucks I'll copy into named folders for specific deer. Secondly, I started using DeerLab last year, and I really like it. You can pull all sorts of great statistics simply by uploading your pics. It's been fascinating to see certain patterns emerge for specific sites and deer.
I have 2 cards for every camera and the day I change them is what the folder gets saved as. Like today woulda been 07/12/2016 1 or 1A. Then I'll go through and delete pics don't want and at end of year they all go into folder for that year. Buck pics get separated by target or walk during season then at end of year if have history with buck the pics go into a folder for that deer. Also have a big laminated satellite map of farm I hunt and if start to get a pattern will mark it on there for particular deer and in notbook right down times of day they pass through, weather coditions, and frequency.
I have files by the farm and year. Mine automatically date when I add them to the folders. I do usually sort out the hitlist bucks before season and make a hitlist folder for that year as well. I don't see much point in making it a lot more complicated than that. As far as patterning a particular buck, I get a bit of an idea about their patterns and ranges and just hunt general areas.
Thx, will be checking out the deer lab program. It wasn't bad when I only had a camera or two, but the increase in pics makes it a little tougher to track. I have been planning to plot the time stamps on a lrg map to better look for patterns.
I make folder according to each year. So this January 1st made a 2016 folder. Then I only save the pictures that give information or the ones I want. Then rename each file to the date it was taken. Ex: I would save a picture taken today as 07132016 which is July 13th 2016 and if a second is taken on that day make a 07132016a and then you can flip through the entire folder day by day with every location included. You can also pay a software online that will do all this for you including map out the locations and a lot more info but I need to blow my money on other hunting stuff. ha
I spoke to the proprietor of deer labs for quite awhile at an expo last year and it truly is a great product. Even if you just have one camera. Dr. Grant Woods was there also and really liked the program. You just tag every picture of the deer and it will keep track of the "hot zones" where he is the most and at what times and weather conditions he will be there. It takes all the note taking and trying to remember back to what the weather was at the time the pic was taken, out of it. Decent price bundles and you also get another trail cam when you sign up. He's also working on a recognition program so you don't even have to tag the photos. He said though that it's going to be near impossible but is trying for it.
I use a simple folder structure. I create a folder for each property, and then inside of that I create a sub-folder for each camera location on that property. This year I started to name the camera itself based on where it's located so I can tell right on the pic. Typically I'm running 10-15 cams at any given time and over 100k pics so this has been the best way for me to keep track of everything.
I have a breakdown like this: Year >camera locations >>date >>>only keep a few pictures of each good buck and any cool pictures. I delete the rest I also have a folder called pulled cameras under each year. I run 19 cameras and I move them around a ton. So if I pull one from a spot I throw that folder in the pulled folder so I don't have as many folders to navigate through. It works great for me since I average between 50-65 camera locations per year.
I create a folder for Year, Month and Location with a sub-folder for small bucks and one for shooters.
I also move my cameras a bunch looking for a pattern. How do you keep track? Or is it more a memory thing?
Keep track of the different locations? I name them all differently. It can get super confusing and in about 15-20 years I probably won't be able to remember them all but for now it works just fine. Mine situation might be different because I'm hunting vast tracks of public land that I can name cameras off of the closest road intersection which is never farther than a 1/2 mile away since it's all easy access land.
I keep mine categorized when I am chasing a particular buck. I separate them by months and years. I also use weather sites to see what were the weather patterns when I saw the most activity. It has helped me learn a lot by doing this.
Makes sense on naming the files, are you using them more to identify the deer in that particular plot of ground or patterning a certain deer? I should have been clearer, I'm running a bunch of cams trying to pattern a certain deer or two. The property I hunt tends to hold the bucks til they disperse for rut, then the neighbors kill them. Im trying to figure out a plan to get them b4 that happens. Appreciate the input.
For my needs its just for keeping track of that spot or for inventory. The area I hunt is bedding and feeding all mixed into one because it's so thick. So there are no patterns to pick up on. What I would if I was you was set up some excel tables if you have a deer your trying to pattern. Give each camera location a different sheet. Put 1 through 24 across the top for the hours of the day and then just start adding data when the buck shows up. For example f he shows up at 3am twice in one week that spot would have a 2. If they show on multiple cameras the same day that will help too figuring out where he was between cameras based on the times between him showing up. I have done something similar to that for tracking what days of the hunting season I have got 3.5 year old deer or older on camera during shooting hours since 2012.
