Camera Software - Who Knew?

When I got my camera a couple years ago, I never bothered to install the software that came with it. The camera uses SD cards, so I just popped them into the card reader and copied the pictures to my computer that way - the way I'd always done it. But, since I had to reinstall Windows and then my card reader wouldn't read the SD cards properly, I thought I'd give the camera software a try. And also because, since I'm starting with 0 photos on my computer, this is a good time to start over with something new.

This stuff is pretty neat. I hook the camera to the computer with the cable and can download all the pics on the card. The software even puts them into folders by date. Then, I can use that same software to add keywords, change file names, etc. It even reads all the camera information like shooting mode, shutter speed, and other camera stuff that I don't actually understand that well. This is important because I took an online class about all those camera settings, and I tried shooting with different settings, but later I couldn't remember which setting was what - so this should really help. I am going to have to go back over all that class info though, because now I don't remember much of it.

Anyway, I'm just now going through and organizing photos that were on one of my cards - thankfully still because I would have lost them otherwise - finding pictures I forgot about, and seeing what I can do with this software. So far I'm liking it, not enough to create promotional bags to let everyone know about it, but enough to mention it.

How about you - do you use the software that came with your camera? Have you found any good ways to keep your photos organized?