You are into photography, you own a digital camera, you have a big memory card and storing data is fairly cheap, so you take a lot of pictures. And when I say you, I mean me, I’m talking about myself.

What inevitably happens with digital photography is that you end up with a lot of pictures that you don’t actually use. You never really have to worry about whether or not you have enough film, so you can just keep snapping pictures like a Japanese tourist that lives in all of us.

Let’s say I do a self portrait series, I shoot approximately 60 pictures, I discard 30 unfocused or otherwise just really bad shots, before moving the rest to the computer. I go through all the pictures, I keep flipping between two almost identical ones, to see which is better, and finally I select maybe 6 to be processed and published. What I have left is some 20 plus pictures that have no use for me right now, or maybe not ever.

If I were reasonably and organised, I would probably go through all the pictures more carefully after every shoot, and discard more of the picture I think are not that great. But alas, I am not. Once I move the pictures from the memory card to my computer, that is it, I don’t remove anything from the set. I know I will not use most of the pictures, but I can not bring myself to throw them to the trash.

Hoarder

My hoarder genes come out strong in here, I am very afraid to throw pictures away. What if I need the three almost identical ones for something in the years to come. The subtle changes in posture, angle or facial expression make all the pictures different and I might later need them. And what if there is a hidden gem somewhere, that I will only see years later? Sometimes I might just need a simple picture to accompany some writing.

I don’t remember who, but I heard someone once say that the value of photograph might only reveal itself after years to come. For example, a person in the photograph dies so you will never have the change to photograph him again, or an old beautiful building collapses and you now hold a piece of history in the form of a photograph.

Lost images

I’m going to justify my picture hoarding tendencies by saying that I have thrown away old pictures that I now miss and wish I had them somewhere. Most often when I have been looking for a certain set of pictures, I have them on a shitty Instagram form, with a boring ass filter on top, but the original is nowhere to be found.

For some time, I shot in RAW on and off, bit of a love-hate relationship, and I wish I had RAW files of everything I have ever shot. I now shoot in exclusively on RAW. It would be interesting to go back to those old photos and see what I could do with them with them now that I am better at both photography and post processing than I was some five years ago.

Challenge myself

I should challenge myself to take less pictures, quality over quantity. I think that at some point there was a challenge “Shoot like film” floating around the photography enthusiast community in Steemit. It would be a huge challenge for me to limit myself to only, wait, how many pictures does the regular film roll have?

Fucking millennial who has never owned a film camera. Though I do have a polaroid camera, so kinda the same thing in terms of having to be more selective of what to shoot and not just snap away.

I have to start going through my old photos and figure how to use the ones that haven’t been out of the confines of my computer. Of course not every picture is good enough and not every picture needs to be shared. There are some private moments that are not for the rest of the world. You know, home made porn and stuff. I’m kidding! Don’t steal my external hard drive.

Are you an photography enthusiast too, and if so, do you struggle with an overflow of pictures on your computer?