One of the more tedious tasks of the prolific photographer–especially a studio photographer like me, who can take 100s of wine bottle photographs in one session–is the inevitable need to archive, delete, and otherwise organize the myriad images we take. From a professional standpoint, a single finished image may have taken 20,30, or even 100 or more shots to achieve. And I am afraid that spills into our personal and vacation photography as well. It is further compounded by the fact that shooting digital has no immediate financial drawbacks—shoot as many as you want, there free! Of course, a few years later and you are staring at 150 exposures of a rock and you have no idea where, or even when you took them. But oh my, how hard they are to delete! Photographers really are the ultimate digital hoarders.
I do have a responsibility to keep archives on my clients wine bottle shots, for example, because, well, they expect me to! And since I shoot in RAW, and many final images might be composites of multiple RAW images (digital negatives, essentially) that one pretty bottle shot might leave behind 100mbs worth of 5-10 images—EACH!
As I said, I have found myself doing the same thing with my vacation shots, and I am on the verge of needed to seek help. But, sometimes, you find a gem in the pile of digital rubble. Take these two images. I know they were both taken on a long-ago trip to Death Valley, but, sadly, I could not tell you exactly where. All I know is that it was a fun trip, and I am happy that I found these pictures to help me, ah, remember it by!
Cheers,
Bryan
