Monday, October 11, 2010

the delete button

So after reading this post over the weekend about editing/deleting photos off of our computers, I decided I needed to get busy!! This is a topic I actually think about quite a lot...........the vast amount of photos I take, the amount that I still need to have printed, the number of photo albums I have filled, etc... And the question I keep coming back to is, "How many photos do I really need in order to tell the stories I want to tell?" There may be instances when I need to keep 30 photos of the exact same pose, but most of the time, when I keep that many photos on my hard drive, or worse yet, put that many in an album, I am actually decreasing the value of that story.

There will never be enough time in the day to scrapbook all of our stories, and that is exactly as it should be. I want to spend most of my time being in the moment and only some of my time recording them. But, even when I simply put photos straight into a photo album, I want those albums to tell a story as well. I want there to be just enough photos to capture the memory, but not so many that it becomes boring or redundant. And for me, that means I need to get a little more comfortable with the delete button on my computer.
That means that starting today:
1. When I upload new photos to my computer, I am going to be ruthless in deciding which photos to keep and which to send to the trash bin.
2. Once I have decided on the "keepers," I will give those photos an Event name.
3. I am going to upload new photos at least once a month to Costco, have them printed, and immediately place them in a photo album (I will keep out the "best of the best" if there is a story I want to scrapbook........not necessarily the best quality photos, but the ones that will best tell the story)
4. As for the older photos, I am taking a little time each day to start at the beginning, and delete at least 40 photos.

I feel lighter already..........

3 comments:

Erin said...

This is such a good thing to do! It's hard for me too, but I've learned to delete away! Blogging helps me a lot because I have to choose one favorite shot of something for a post, I edit that picture and then delete a lot of the rest. I'm like you - I'll take 20 shots of one thing! It's ridiculous! :)

You asked me a question about scrapbooking awhile back and I can't remember what it was? E-mail me if you still remember it and I'll answer it for you! :)

Erica said...

I can't tell you how many times Justin has told me to weed down our photos. It is such a hard thing for me to do! I love how you said it's about telling a story and that too many photos could "decrease the value" of that story. This is something that has been on my to-do list for over a year and intimidation has stood in my way.

Kelli said...

I need to do this too. I do delete a lot before I put them onto the computer but I need to be better about organizing and printing them off. You're right that you don't need 30 of the same pose! Thanks for the encouragement.

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