Too many digital images?

[adina]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20763864...5829?GT1=10357

Whacha think?

I know that I've tapered off how much my kids are photographed. Heck, you used to see posts with my kids on a weekly basis, when I was trying to figure things out. Now that I spend so much time photographing other peoples kids, I don't photograph mine as much.

However, I've noticed that I spend more time with them, doing, as opposed to beyond them, shooting.

[Old Timer]

I don't think you can have too many pictures. My kids and now my grandkids just expect me to have the camera regardless of what we are doing. If I don't have one for some reason they'll ask about it and want to know why it's not along. The little everyday photos are more valuable to my wife and I today than that dressed up for Easter posed shot that everyone has. Our adult children treasure those images of themselves and their siblings almost as much as Joy and I. My two year old grandson Jack just got his first camera (by Fisher Price). Now now he goes around the house pretending to be his Pop.

[MB1]

You can always delete digital images but if you don't take them you can't use then.

Besides the beauty of digital is there is essentially no more cost from taking 1,000 images compared to taking one.

I say shoot away.

[Frog]

It becomes too many when everyone loses interest and doesn't want to see anymore.
Just my opinion.

[megan]

I say it's okay to put the camera down sometimes and be a part of everything, instead of being the recorder/observer. What kind of memories will one have 10, 20 years from now if all you were doing was recording the memory instead of being a part of making the memory? Photos are great, but so is living life.

Ever read "On Photography" by Susan Sontag? Interesting read.

[Photo-John]

Besides the beauty of digital is there is essentially no more cost from taking 1,000 images compared to taking one.

Storage is a very real, albeit somewhat hidden cost. I've been spending about $200 a year on hard drives to store my photos. It's still cheaper than film and processing. But it does cost money. I suppose if you shoot JPEGs it isn't so bad. But RAW files add up pretty quickly.

[SmartWombat]

Yep.
3000 files on some weekends, over 130000 images now, and growing.
I have no idea what people will make of them once I die ... I doubt if any archive will want them.

How many of the billions of digital images around the world from cellphones and cameras are just going to vanish, as hard drives become obsolete or something even better replaces USB ?
Let alone when the owners/photographers press the delete button by accident?

[shutterman]

Adobe lightroom has helped immensly with tagging and sorting. it is a big job though and best to "tag as you go"

With the tagging and adding a Media Server to the TV, we can now look at photos by events, dates, tags, etc all from the comfort of our favorite couch. Now I can pick out pictures from our favorite ice cream shop in Anna Maria island over the years and see how it and the kids have changed - just one example.

Once the tagging of the digital is done then the film is going digital all back up to DVD and to the bank safety deposit box.

Adobe Lightroom + Media Server + RAID Storage device does equal some big $$ but when I was in 5th grade our house burned and the only thing we miss the old movies and photographs!

I say keep taking them!

[another view]

It becomes too many when everyone loses interest and doesn't want to see anymore.
Just my opinion.

And mine too - but there's a difference with this. Keep shooting, but just because someone has 1,000 pictures of their vacation doesn't mean that everybody wants to see all of them. Hopefully there are a few really great ones and out of that many shots it should be possible to tell the story, so to speak, with about two dozen or less. There's a quote to that affect, something like "the more I shoot, the luckier I get".

John's right about storage costs. I don't have the volume that some of the people here have, but buying a pair of drives (backup) at a time can add up. Fortunately, a couple hundred dollars isn't too bad for most people considering how many images can be stored on a drive. I've spent $2-300 or so for slide processing from a (one) trip, more than once!

[SmartWombat]

Adobe Lightroom + Media Server + RAID Storage device

Ah, not got media client yet, but my RAID box comes with media server and FTP server available, if I dare turn them on.
I also think I need a second RAID box to back up the first RAID box, just in case.
Or perhaps to take the overflow

How do you make a backup of a 2 terabyte disk anyhow ?

[shutterman]

Ah, not got media client yet, but my RAID box comes with media server and FTP server available, if I dare turn them on.
I also think I need a second RAID box to back up the first RAID box, just in case.
Or perhaps to take the overflow

How do you make a backup of a 2 terabyte disk anyhow ?

I think we have the same box - Ready NAS by Infrant (I think that is what it is called).

I hope you have a good filing sytem for all of those files!

Thanks,
Wes

[Liz]

Just question.......

Does anyone delete any of their shots? I delete most of the images that I see on my card and file the rest. I still feel I have way too many, although my filing system is in desparate need of organization.

BTW, which program would be the easiest and least expensive to use to begin sorting out what has become a mish/mash of sorting by dates, places, birthdays, people, etc. Anyone use Elements 4?

Thanks.
Liz

[freygr]

There are a few good programs. I use Thumbs Plus, but there is Adob Photoshop Album, and many other program.

I save my photos as follows, by type in subdirectories "photo film" or "photo digital", Then I make a subdirectory for the year, and when I move the photos off the memory card I move it into a subdirectory of the the date the photos where taken in this format YYYYMMDD y= year m=month d=day

So the Directory Tree looks like this:

C:\images
C:\images\Photo-Digital
C:\images\Photo-Digital\2000-05-30
C:\images\Photo-Digital\2000-06-14
C:\images\Photo-Film
C:\images\Photo-Film\Side-Box-1

That way you only have small amounts in each subdirectory and I also pint a catalog of each subdirectory (30 thumb nail images per page) and have them in three ring binders. You would be amazed at how much easier the paper is to search than the same images on a computer.

[Liz]

You would be amazed at how much easier the paper is to search than the same images on a computer.

I'm sure it is - and it's easier to put it on paper I think - at least at this point.

Thanks for the ideas.....and samples

Liz

[SmartWombat]

Delete?
Not usually.
Unless the flash didn't fire and it's black, or the vertical grip shutter release button was pressed while the camera was over my shoulder, or there's excessive shake, or the exposure is way off, or I missed the car completely ...

Even then I delete after reviewing it on the computer, never in camera.

[another view]

I also do YYYYMMDD and tag it with the subject or location. In other words 20070920_Chicago or something like that. If I'm on a trip for a few days I'll usually just keep everything in one folder rather than creating one for each day. It's low tech and I'm not dealing with too many thousands of images so it works pretty well.

And I do delete a fair amount of images. If I have one image and it's a little soft I'll keep it, but if I've taken a few or several shots of roughly the same thing and one or some of them just don't work, they're gone.

[darkman]

I say it's okay to put the camera down sometimes and be a part of everything, instead of being the recorder/observer. What kind of memories will one have 10, 20 years from now if all you were doing was recording the memory instead of being a part of making the memory? Photos are great, but so is living life.

Ever read "On Photography" by Susan Sontag? Interesting read.

Yeah, that's why I'm not so good at travel photography. I would rather be in the middle, and doing everything, ejnoying the moment, rather than being a spectator!

OTOH, like John, I'm buying a yearly drive for backup. I'm now purchasing 1/2 Tb drives.

[Sebastian]

I delete nothing and shoot a LOT. What it comes down to is editing. And not what really should be called manipulating, but editing down a thousand shots to five that tell the story. Storage is cheap, Aperture makes organization a breeze, and you never know how you'll feel about these images a year form now. Many times I've gone back and reviewed photos to find I liked them now much more than I did in the past. Deletion makes that impossible.

[Greg McCary]

I don't think you can have too many pictures. My kids and now my grandkids just expect me to have the camera regardless of what we are doing. If I don't have one for some reason they'll ask about it and want to know why it's not along. The little everyday photos are more valuable to my wife and I today than that dressed up for Easter posed shot that everyone has. Our adult children treasure those images of themselves and their siblings almost as much as Joy and I. My two year old grandson Jack just got his first camera (by Fisher Price). Now now he goes around the house pretending to be his Pop.

You summed it up pretty good OT. Enough said.
Greg

[Alison]

You summed it up pretty good OT. Enough said.
Greg

Precisely! The header on my blog is "Hang on to the special moment's in your life, freeze them in time, forever, for tomorrow they will be gone".

My Mum and Dad are no longer here, I wish they were so that I could take some more pics of them. I had started to shoot more, after the birth of Sam in April 1986. Sam and I are so pleased we have these sorts of pics.
This was taken in December 1986, my Mum died a year and a half later.



So, NO! I, personally, can NEVER have too many pics

[adina]

Alison, you totally look like your mom!

[Tyson L. Sparks]

Precisely! The header on my blog is "Hang on to the special moment's in your life, freeze them in time, forever, for tomorrow they will be gone".

My Mum and Dad are no longer here, I wish they were so that I could take some more pics of them. I had started to shoot more, after the birth of Sam in April 1986. Sam and I are so pleased we have these sorts of pics.
This was taken in December 1986, my Mum died a year and a half later.

So, NO! I, personally, can NEVER have too many pics

I lost my Mom and Dad real young, I was 24 when mom died and 29 when dad died. I miss them both badly, I have very few pictures of them. I am now 33, I have a ton a ton of pictures of crazy stuff. If there is a person in an image, I keep it no mater what. You would be surprised how many people ask me for pictures that I have taken in the past. Even before I bought my DSLR, I owned a PS Olympus. It served me well, now that I have a DSLR I sometimes just pick it up and start shooting around the house. I have recorded some of the best images just goofing off. I wish I had a 35mm film camera, just to try old school stuff.

Keep hitting that shutter button guys.