tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

For me, the fun is in the taking of the image and the PP process. I love creating an image that speaks to me, and hopefully to others. Now, concerning my "pack rat" mentality, my biggest problem is looking at a photo, and saying, "Well, it's not that great, but maybe I can use it or parts of it later..." Needless to say, my backlog of thousands of "use it later" images is crying out for winnowing and culling. But on a cold, snowy winter day, with a cup of excellent coffee, I can't think of a better way to spend it than to reminisce and review images from the past. Good for my soul...

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

After Thanksgiving each year, my wife and I go through the images from the prior twelve months and select those that will be printed and given away to family members at Christmas. Prints are black and white, 8x8, and are bound into books. Out of the ~3,000 images in Lightroom for this year we chose 276 to print. I'm in the process of making 909 prints, which will go into 9 books of varying sizes - the largest this year is 198 pages and the smallest is 37 pages. I'll make another book for ourselves that contains all 276 of the images, but to save shelf space I do that one double sided. This takes more organization during the printing process and so doesn't get done until later.

We have done this for the last 35+ years. It makes the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas incredibly hectic for me, but things became better once I retired. They got even easier when I switched from the wet darkroom to digital, and got better still when I started using Lightroom to organize things. Nostalgic as I may get from time to time for the film days, I would NEVER willingly go back to a wet darkroom.

pmsc70d Loc: Post Falls, Idaho

I transfer my photos to the computer and never delete them from the card. That's my archive. On the computer i delete those that are obviously out of focus or exposed badly, but find it hard to delete others. My very favorites I print and put in albums. My wife is a painter, so there's no wall space to put of my photos.

GWR100 Loc: England

I keep them all, I have 11 large chests of negs and 15 terabytes of digital images, and for me they are priceless, some of my best picture I have done recently are over 30 years old-- its amazing what i missed first time round??

Geoff

jaycoffman Loc: San Diego

I keep mine on my computer and a separate disk for backup. I organize my pictures either by trip and year or by subject. After a trip and any post processing (a lot since I shoot raw) I then incorporate my pictures into a travel story--writing about what I saw and thought and about the people I met and insert pictures (up to 100). Then I turn it into a PFD file and send them to about 100 friends who have asked to get them. It works well for me although since my photography has been improving this is proving to be unwieldily and I'm considering other ways to post the story-pictures so it won't be so hard to get them all in one document and send it by email.

I think the main thing is to organize your pictures in some way that allows you to retrieve any pictures fairly easily and works for you. Like others, I have to go back from time to time and delete the pictures that don't really add to what I'm trying to save.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

I take thousands of pageantry shots and put 'em up on Smugmug for mom's and kids to buy...or put on a coffee cup. My *other* interests are vast, my collection of what I consider "keepers" is large, so lately, at the prompting of a artsy friend, I've become a member of a local Arts Council...just yesterday picked-up a couple of my pieces that have been hanging there for a month. This activity is a real eye-opener for me in many respects, and the networking alone is gold. As a lifelong carpenter, I've picked up many adjuncts to that trade, one of which is cabinetmaking. I make my frames from scratch, have whatever image(s) I'm working on printed on canvas in a certain style, stretch the canvas on a designed for the task subframe, and mount to the frame. I'm highly motivated to sell the things...there are *way* too many around here! Oh, and I don't regard photography as a hobby at all, it's just a part of the totality of what I do. I make money from tasks that I enjoy, from building things to teaching kids how to march to taking photographs. If I have a hobby it's playing tuba but I've made money at that, too, hahaha! Keep it fun, just let it take you wherever it will, and good things will happen.

I should add that I'm an avid Facebook member and have tons of albums up there, Flickr also but haven't updated in a long time (Google Plus is in this category too), and 500PX where I maintain a gallery of "specials"...

Pauld

We travel a lot, and take photos when traveling. After culling them and editing the kept ones, the photos get put on our blog and on flickr.

timcc Loc: Virginia

Under cover of darkness, I sneak a few photos over to Boberic's driveway. No sales yet, but good for de-cluttering.

Smudgey Loc: Ohio, Calif, Now Arizona

It's so sad when dementia takes over.😂

Quinn 4

At the end of each year I go through all the pictures from that year, I may end up with 10 pictures I want to keep from a total of 100 pictures. The rest destroy and in to the trash. I have people over the years ask for a picture I have, I give the picture to them at no cost. Like someone said once you take money for a picture it no longer enjoyment.

achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

on the computer hd and on 2 seperate digit drives, plus lots in Photo Bucket.

therwol Loc: USA

I can see the humor, but I'm such a literal person that I have to ask. Are they backed up anywhere else? What if the computer "gets dead" first?

Terry

Does anyone actually edit pictures for a living and return them for a cost. please advice?

shelty Loc: Medford, OR

I make large prints and display all of my good pictures in photo shows.

SAVH Loc: La Jolla, CA

Actually, it is a very good question. I, too, have tens of thousands of digital pictures alone on my computer. I do a lot of travel photography as well as covering family events. One thing I have done with the pictures every year for about 15 years is make gift calendars for friends and family. I believe they make nice Christmas or New Year's presents. I have made something like 25 or more calendars each year. They are put together for the recipient's interests, so they are not all the same. I also have put up a "gallery" in my home with the best pictures I've taken. Additionally, I gift framed pictures to people who I know will enjoy them. So far, the calendars and pictures seem to have been very well received. Lately, I have begun to weed out my pictures but it is such a time consuming process that I may still be adding faster than I delete.