Your piece provided me with the clarity I needed because I've been feeling a little stuck on this problem. Your methodical approach seems very feasible and doable. I also appreciated how you recognized the difficulties without giving the impression that they were insurmountable. Your writing style is engaging without being overwhelming, which is a rare balance to strike.

(Following comment copied from Lightroom Queen LrC forum)

Me: 74 year old casual family and bird photographer. Very comfortable with Windows computers and file structure, beginner with photography and Lightroom. Started Lightroom 2019 with birth of grandchild, dormant for 2 years, restarting. Photoshop Elements prior.

My problem: Entirely related to importing from old files, camera, scanner,then organizing and exporting (to flash drive). Assumed I remembered enough from 2019-wrong. Have multiple copies of same image, many folders outside of Lightroom, many photos unable to find. Deep concern over possibility of accidental deletion. Each effort I made to fix seemed to dig me into a deeper hole, loss of confidence. May have 50,000-100,000 images which should be condensed to about 1,000-2,000 photos I want to keep, then begin organizing a lifetime of print photos.

Previous efforts: Adobe Lightroom Classic Classroom in a Book: Very Good. Victoria Bampton LR Classic Missing FAQ- Good. Tim Grey "Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom"-very good. These LR Queen forums very helpful. Despite all these aids, I was losing confidence that I would make correct choices on my own.

Work with Dan: 2 hour Zoom meeting, camera, microphone, speaker for both of us, screen sharing. All technically smooth. Dan was a very easy guy to work with. Feeling fragile and reading about some negative "help from expert" experiences in this forum, I was concerned that the "expert" would take over my screen, make a lot of changes that I didn't undersatnd, and leave me worse off. Dan was very easy to work with-he hung back, let me explain my points of confusion , and gradually got me from upset to "I can do this, I can follow this map".

I had originally thought that his 2 hour minimum might be too long, but it was just right and less time would not have worked. I thought his fee structure was fair, and will save me many hours of my own time flailing around blind, which was what I had been doing. I will likely take time to absorb all the advice Dan gave, then arrange another session in the future.

For any tutor, I recommend putting your problems in writing, and in priority of importance to you, and sending it to the tutor before the meeting. Just that step alone helped me understand what I wanted to learn, and helped create a structure for both of us through the meeting.

(Review copied from Yelp)

Dan's knowledge of Lightroom is extensive. He did an amazing job helping me transfer all my images to a new external hard drive. He advised me on what equipment I needed. He communicates clearly and gets to the root of the problem quickly. I no doubt will need his help again.

Dan helped me bring order from chaos in my photo library. He was methodical and asked good questions of me. Dan is the first person to give me a good explanation of how and why my Lightroom Catalog and my photos are 2 different things.