This week's blog is a bit different, I want to help educate instead of just showing images and telling a story.
It had been a while since I sat at my laptop, which I use on the go and to backup phone images. Today as I am looking through all these images, I realize I have a problem. I'm an image hoarder. You may say, "Well, you're a photographer, you SHOULD have tons of pictures." Or should I? I'm no different than you when it comes to saving personal images. I need to weed out the junk and just keep what I want Aiden to see one day. And, I really need to think about the pictures before I click and keep.
Afterall, every time you touch the shutter button, you're wearing out your device. Read:: if you want to keep an image, don't just keep clicking. Really THINK about light, composition and color. Yesterday I met a man with a camera and he said he pretty much just wings it now because of the digital world. Ugh.
Example number one:: a potty. I was having a yard sale. The potty is long gone. WHY DID I KEEP THIS PICTURE OF A POTTY? It's going to the trash. Please, do this for your sanity and someone's sanity one day. GET RID OF THE POTTY PICTURE so they don't have to look through them all!
I'm giving you the GO CLEAR THE CLUTTER commandment today -- start with 15 minutes a day. Be vigilant. If you say, "Aw, but I need all 12 images I took of little Larry that day..." Seriously, think about how Little Larry will feel if he sees all these images and not one is in focus, not one is good. Just do it. Delete. I know, some of you are gasping (Rachel, I hear you from Shelby County)... But in all honestly, if we clear the clutter out of our house, we need to clear the clutter in our digital house too. Also, who wants to clear out all that crap when you croak?
I have no idea why I took this picture of my tea kettle. Maybe it was to write a blog one day on slowing down to brew a cup of tea and delete bad pictures? Okay, done. Gone.
I've started a PRINT folder on my computers so that I know which ones I want to print for walls, as gifts, etc... You may want to do this too. You could even name it PRINTS FOR GIFTS. Please make prints. Your computer, phone, ipad, i-whatever devices will not last forever. At least a print can help you retain some memory without eating up all the memory on the devices.
We spared a baby bunny from the dogs, but the bunny is now probably having bunnies of its own. Delete. (And just for the record, I had THREE of these images... )
This might help you... my rules of deleting files (for personal pictures, I keep client files for other reasons but still cull like crazy)::
1. If I wouldn't want anyone to see this image (a really blurry shot, it's not even halfway becoming of the person in the shot, it's a picture of a potty...)
And honestly, unless you're a food photographer or a farmer, you MUST delete the food pictures. This doesn't even look good. I wonder why I even shot this?
2. If I wouldn't print this image, it needs to be in the Delete category -- especially if it's food or something I shot to send as a text just for a funny story to a friend.
3. If I'm running super low on storage space on any device, it's time to purge. That may mean putting things on an external hard drive. BUT delete first, and print the ones I want just in case my back up to my back up fails.
4. If I need a "clear the clutter" moment but don't want to clear out physical clutter, I can take 15 minutes -- instead of reading yet another article about food or unwanted clutter (haha) -- to clear out some hard drive clutter. Let's face it. We use "but I'm too busy" as an excuse for just about anything these days. We're not really that busy.
5. And for all you artists out there freaking out, thinking, "But your images are your sketch book..." Seriously. Maybe so, but for the love, just delete the stuff that's not even bringing back any memory in your head. Just get rid of that so your digital memory can breathe. I applaud you artist hoarders. I'm one too. But you'll have more peace if you delete (and especially if you're not "tech savvy")!
This is an okay image, but I took it because of the flooding of the Ohio. Along with about 10 more pictures. So this one goes.
This one stays. Simply because we went for a walk down by the river and it was flooded...and Aiden didn't get to play on the playground. But it's in a folder called Personal Photographs/date/OhioRiverFlood15. And that's the only one that I'm keeping. If I wanted to send the other nine to the UofL archive, that is fine, but there's no need for me to keep these.
Now, go clear some digital clutter! Have a great day and remember to always click responsibly.