Delete or Not? In the "The Thrill is Gone" thread, robertjerl stated the following in one of his posts: "Mr Delete is your friend." That quote got me to thinking. I understand the...

cidbearit Loc: Canton, MI, USA

In the "The Thrill is Gone" thread, robertjerl stated the following in one of his posts: "Mr Delete is your friend." That quote got me to thinking.

I understand the meaning, and have used it to justify clicking away on my digital SLR, as opposed to the conservative approach I took with my shutter button when shooting film many years ago. But there lies the rub.

I shoot all these images, and unless there are obvious throwaways, I download them to my PC, pick a few to tweak/share/print, but very rarely do I delete any of them. I have thousands of shots that I will likely never use for anything, but I don't/can't/won't delete them. And to top it off, I have them all backed up.

Digital photography supposedly allows you to take all the shots you desire, and then keep just the ones you want. But I'd estimate I keep well over 99% of the shots I take. I've become a digital photo hoarder.

Am I alone in this?

Dennis

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Dennin, you aren't alone in this. I'm looking forward to some hopefully time and space saving suggestions.

tinwhistle

No, you are not. However, I also horded all my film negs, never threw away a strip. My storage files must number in the 10s of thousands. Two of my photo buddy's have the same affliction. It may be contagious...

the hiker Loc: San Diego

No you are not alone. I also save all of my photos.I keep saying I will get around to editing them one of these days.But I haven't done it yet.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Delete all the less-than-spectacular, mediocre images, and soon enough you won't even remember ever taking them. And as a bonus, your collection will then contain nothing but visual masterpieces, worth revisiting over and over again. The trimmed collection will also be so much easier to manage and organize. Life is too short to browse through vast collections containing mostly forgettable, sub-par images. So, do yourself a favor: Keep only the best, delete the rest.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

rook2c4 wrote:

your collection will then contain nothing but visual masterpieces

Lol! Most of us are nothing more than snap shot shooters with very very low standards, which would explain why some hold on to almost everything. Ansel Adams said that 10 good picture a year was a good year for him. Guess what does that make us snap shooters? Masterpieces? Do you mean maybe a DECENT photo? If we are lucky

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Well, I, also confess to hoarding digital images as well as an unknown number of 35mm negatives, none of which are catalogues. I also have tons of color prints and slided spanning 49 years of taking pictures. When I go, someone will have the dubious pleasure of sorting through all that stuff.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

rook2c4 wrote:

Delete all the less-than-spectacular, mediocre images, and soon enough you won't even remember ever taking them. And as a bonus, your collection will then contain nothing but visual masterpieces, worth revisiting over and over again. The trimmed collection will also be so much easier to manage and organize. Life is too short to browse through vast collections containing mostly forgettable, sub-par images. So, do yourself a favor: Keep only the best, delete the rest.

+1

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

cidbearit wrote:

In the "The Thrill is Gone" thread, robe... (show quote)

If I kept every thing I've shot I'd have between 300,000 and 400,000 raw images. That's around 10 terabytes of images! I keep much less than 10% of my images and its still takes up around 600gb. I could probably delete 2/3 of them and never miss them.

splatbass Loc: Honolulu

I do the same thing. I also periodically go through old unused shots and take a fresh look. I've gotten really good pics that way. Sometimes time can change the way you look at those pictures, and if you delete them you might delete something good.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Maybe too many, but then I think about my grand dad he was coxswain on a lifeboat. Had his own garage prepped bikes for some of the racers at the Isle of Man TT. and died when my mum was a teenager. I have seen maybe 3or 4 photographs of him and one of those was in a book. I have a Great Grandfather who was a regimental sergeant major, he lied about his age to join the army at 14 and then later had a few issues when he came to retirement many years later. Think I have seen one photograph of him.

Even relatively ordinary shots can become interesting over time, especially to people who were not even born when they were taken. So saying there are a lot that could be culled...

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

you are not alone. I tell my self i'll get rid of the excess, now and then I get rid of a few, then I give up. in my attic are boxes of slides from the 70's, two projectors, and two screens.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

tdekany wrote:

Ansel Adams said that 10 good picture a year was a good year for him.

Yes, but do you think he ever threw out a printable negative?

blackest Loc: Ireland

blackest wrote:

Maybe too many, but then I think about my grand da... (show quote)

Now this is kind of strange I did a Google search for the book my grandfather was in and an Image search brought up that photo of my Granddad in the life boat. This originated on Pinterest and this woman said it had a picture of her grandfather Jack Patterson well that is my Grandfather So she must be my cousin. She lives in Waltham Massachusetts. I had no idea of her existence before today.

Jim Bob

cidbearit wrote:

In the "The Thrill is Gone" thread, robe... (show quote)

Now that everybody says "You're not alone", do you feel better?