22 July 2012

To delete, or not to delete ....?


It seems to be that quite a few of us have felt twangs of guilt, experienced a somewhat nervous-anxiety even, over the amount of photographs we've put to one side, hidden almost, in the depths of our hard-drives.  A touch of the out-of-sight, out-of-mind?  Archival folders are bulging at the seams, crammed full of photographic content, and we shrug it off again as too irksome a task to contemplate at any length. That process of making the necessary changes, a.k.a. down-sizing.
 
With a moments serious thought though,  are all of them ever going to be needed again?  The flowers in  our garden 2004,  looked fabulous then, but we've probably gotten all the enjoyment from those photos, way back, and some beyond.  Since then though, they've done nothing but be laid to rest  (almost forgot about many of them didn't we?), taking up precious hard-drive space.  Along-with, perhaps hundreds, even thousands of others, of a similar ilk! 

That occupied sector on our computers can add up to precious gigabytes; I know, you knew that already.   Is yours (computer), grudgingly expanding in girth because of more and more pics being added, week after week?  Perhaps we need to be kind and start offering a little t.l.c. for this wonderful tool that keeps us in touch with the world.  The very piece of techno' that has become an integral cog in the big-wheel of our new-age lifestyles.

Good news; it doesn't even need to be called hard work; just a weeny commitment, that's all.  Just know up front, I'm not talking 'family' photographs.  So, with no real intent or deadline, other than to try and do what's good for my computer, I've managed to very gradually DELETE  volumes of old photographs.  Tons of flowers, holiday landscapes, craft projects, birds.  The hardest part really, was just convincing  myself  that it was o.k. to let go of them in the first place. We all started filing them there because we could, but who knew this hobby was going to turn into an obsession!

Hear the big MUNCH from the Recycle Bin, crunching up megabytes; it actually sounds really good.   It spells freedom to your computer!  I can't help but wonder though, quite where my photos have gone to now?  
Notation:  The original butterfly was seen as one of many pinned specimens at Sydney Museum.  A little graphics play with colour hues, and a new signature came into being; I found it in my archives.

13 comments:

Connie Smiley said...

Thanks for this, Carol. I really need to do the same, and you may have give me the impetus.

Grandma Barb's This and That said...

I know what you mean Carole and I have to start deleting some of mine. There are some that aren't even good lurking
on my hard drive. One more thing on the list to do.

Lisa Gordon said...

I have been digitally detoxing for almost a month now. A little at a time, but I've promised myself to never let it get so out of control again!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

TexWisGirl said...

so, by telling us to delete stuff from our storage - things we'll never use - you end with a new signature you created from your archives. hmmm. mixed message. :)

Carole M. said...

TWG, the signature was created way back then; just unearthed it when doing the big delete but kept hold that one :) Sometime, I may use it again, like I did today.....

Brian King said...

Digital photography is great in so many ways, but one downside is storage. After I've downloaded photos to my computer, I immediately delete any that are blurry or otherwise not usable. Then I delete any I don't like for whatever reason. I periodically go back and look through older photos and I'll delete any I know I'll never have a use for. I have an external hard drive that I use for back up and for storage of photos I don't need on my computer.

Some photos I may never use, but I like them for whatever reason so I keep them stored on the external drive. Keeping digital files organized can be a lot of work, but like everything else, sometimes you just have to do some housecleaning.

Stewart M said...

Hi there - nice post - I'm about to move onto a new computer so I been clearing out the old files - you look at them and think "why did I keep this!"

Don’t forget to empty the recycle bin!

I have to say I was pleased to be in a boat, rather than the water (!), when I saw the crocs!

Stewart M

Nadege, said...

I am currently going this process...nothing worth than a bit of housecleaning.
Lovely little butterflies.

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

That is just great - something else to think about. The first thought that comes to mind is I'll delete a bunch of photos then months from now I'll go through all my pictures looking for a particular set. "Now where are they? I know they must be here somewhere. What trip was that? Maybe I'm in the wrong year..." I'll drive myself nuts for I waste way too much time looking for things already.

Hilke Breder said...

I usually flag to delete the ones I'll never use right after downloading to an external hard drive. After a week or so I go ahead and delete. Since I shoot in RAW with its huge image files you can't really do it any other way. But sometimes I have to go to the Recycle bin to retrieve a few. Next step, and very important, is to add keywords; so if I ever look for a shot it's fairly easy to find. When the external hard drive is full, I'll just buy another one. My husband however never ever deletes a photo. So his computer is a real mess. To find one he has to do real dumpster diving. I have to plug my ears so as not to listen to him cursing.

Jeanne said...

You are keeping me inspired to do this very same thing!

Jan Castle said...

I did a bit of that last night in 'ONE' folder on my computer! I was thinking the same thoughts, and knew my computer would wind up in a puddle on my desk if I did not begin to 'toss'...one folder down, 1000 more to go! GROAN!!!
Paper Hugs,
Jan

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Carole, I am one who is not ready to do this... I keep everything --and love to go back and look at old photos. Even pictures in our yard through the years are fun to see again.... SO---I'll hold onto mine and just store them on exterior harddrives...

WELL--I do delete fuzzy pictures or ones which I know I'll never use.. BUT--I do that right after I first take them.

Good Luck with your deletion process....
Hugs,
Betsy