Try this exercise: go to a place such as the last outing you shared on UHH - BlackPoint Wildlife - and force yourself to come home with no more than 10 photos.

When you get to #11, go back through the 10 already shot and delete in-camera the one you consider the weakest, then continue on. I know there may be times this will cause you to miss a fleeting wildlife opportunity, so you may prefer trying a different location, such as an arboretum or other gardens.

Don't shoot just 10 and go home; keep taking pictures, but continue to delete your "weakest" first so that you never have more than 10 on the card at a single time. And before you decide which to delete in order to take the newest, compare the potential of the newest with what's already there. You may decide to move on from that spot without taking a pic.

I have a somewhat similar background, but I have found that I am doing exactly the opposite of your last sentence. I have so many more RAW (in both senses) images to work with that I sometimes can't choose which one to work on, and sometimes see things on my computer screen that I didn't see in the field. Post Processing (f/k/a "Darkroom Work") is so easy and portable now that it's even more fun to play with an image. I might have spent a couple of hours working on one single negative back in the seventies, but now I can see the various ways to treat it in about a half hour, and with no expense except for my time. So in that sense, I'm spending less time processing, and theoretically more time shooting.


But when I look at the actual hours spent, I find that I have so many images to choose from that my overall "darkroom" time has gone up significantly! I'm much freer in expending pixels than I ever was with Kodachrome or Tri X!


Now I'm not complaining - I produce much more work today that I like and enjoy. And, both the shooting time and processing time is quite enjoyable, in a somewhat different way than it used to be. I still take out film gear on occasion, just to help slow down my thinking and approach, but I'm afraid my darkroom stuff will just continue to gather dust. Kind of sad in a way, but I'm very happy with my photography today.


Andy

I think we have all heard of famous painters who have worked for long periods on a painting and then destroy it in frustration and start over. The same thing is going on here. There is a subconscious commitment to and investment in the work already done. Sometimes the only way the painter can go forward is to destroy the canvas. In digital photography, sometimes, we get invested in all the shots we took and get analysis paralysis. That is why I have been trying to be more brutal after a shoot in going home a deleting at least 80% of the shots trying to keep only the very best one or two of a particular composition.

I shot film years ago and recently renewed my interest in photography. I found the freedom digital has brought to photography has made me lazy. When I shot film I would spend a good deal of effort on each photo, often not taking a shot if I wasn't satisfied, now I just take the shot and a couple more for good measure. I know this is a personal problem but was wondering if others have fallen into the habit of taking shots they are not happy with and what you do while you are shooting to resist being lazy.

I shot film years ago and recently renewed my interest in photography. I found the freedom digital has brought to photography has made me lazy. When I shot film I would spend a good deal of effort on each photo, often not taking a shot if I wasn't satisfied, now I just take the shot and a couple more for good measure. I know this is a personal problem but was wondering if others have fallen into the habit of taking shots they are not happy with and what you do while you are shooting to resist being lazy.

I shot film years ago and recently renewed my interest in photography. I found the freedom digital has brought to photography has made me lazy. When I shot film I would spend a good deal of effort on each photo, often not taking a shot if I wasn't satisfied, now I just take the shot and a couple more for good measure. I know this is a personal problem but was wondering if others have fallen into the habit of taking shots they are not happy with and what you do while you are shooting to resist being lazy.