Going through old photos

I have a problem. I wish I could say it was a small one, but you know, it isn’t. I have no space left for photos.

My laptop is 1TB and it is full. I have an external disk that is 2TB and it is full. I also have the NAS, the backup system for my photos. It is 8TB and it is full. That means I have around 11TBs full of photos.

Dave refuses to buy me more storage, so I have the monumental task of going through all my images and deleting heaps. There is that time I was always bracketing, so that means I had either 3 or 5 copies of each one. OMG. So I am getting rid of all but one of each series of bracketed shots. Then again, some of them are the same as others, so I’m deleting them too.

IT IS SO BORING.

I’ve known it is something I’ve had to do for quite some time, but I kept putting it off. Or I would do a little and then stop. The lesson here, do it sooner after a shoot. That is what I’m doing more now.

With my trip to Uluru coming up and some new work I want to do, I need to find space for all the photos. So I am going to have to spend some time going through them and deleting or weeding if you like. If I could delete around 100K that would be great. Almost 10 years of digital files to go through, wish me luck.

One thing that is nice when going through older photos are the things you find. Like the ones below.

Something I used to do but am thinking of revisiting it. I did these back in 2013 and I’m sure a few of you might remember them.

Anyway back to the weeding. Have a good weekend everyone.

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21 Comments

  1. Another hard drive? I’ve got 7 hanging off my iMac. Most are 4T or greater. All are backed up by Back Blaze in case I loss one. This may not be a consideration with a laptop but it may be cheaper and less time consuming than eliminating photos.

    1. Yeah, only so many hard drives I can get I think. I am going to do this, one because I know there are lots of photos that I don’t really need anymore and two because it is nice going through my images and seeing what I have. I don’t do that enough I think. Sounds like you have lots of photos too. The Nas has backup too so I like to keep my photos there. We have had hard disks die with that too. Thanks Tim.

    1. It is so hard trying to work out what shots you will use and what you won’t. I do tend to take a lot of similar shots so for now I’m just picking the best and getting rid of the multiples, hopefully that helps. Thanks Ritva.

  2. I have become much more trigger happy with the delete button. Repeats get trashed and anything not good enough to use in some way for an article, book or post gets deleted too. Lots of images you think you might work on one day never see the light of day. So yes, easier to ‘weed’ as you go than face the deadly boring task you are going through now!

    1. Yeah, trigger happy with the delete button is a good way of putting it. Though I am still probably too careful, more so because I know I’ve deleted images in the past and then thought what about that image that I took wherever and then realised I had deleted them. At this stage I’m going to delete most of the bracketed shots and all the one that pretty much look the same except for one or two. If I do that every few years no doubt I will end up with far less. I’m trying to get better at doing most of that when I put the photos on the computer. Yes, lots of boring times ahead, then again, sometimes I find some images that I’m happy to see again. Some of them from when I went out with you. Thank you Chris.

    1. I know Carol. I can’t wait to go and see what I get. Fujifilm are lending me some gear for the trip too, so it should be a good one. Thanks Carol.

  3. I seem to remember the photos above, Leanne. I’ve been following you for a few years now! I don’t the task ahead of you but at least you know how much you love photography! I too keep my photos on an external SSD for safe storage as well as them being high in the cloud storage. Have a great weekend!

    1. I’m not surprised John, you have been following me for a very long time. I guess you can tell how much I love taking photos. I don’t use the cloud, I don’t like the idea of it really. I don’t know how safe it is. Plus I’m not sure how good our internet is for storing them there. Thanks John and you have a good weekend too. Wet again here.

    2. More rain, that sounds lovely! I have online friends that I have followed literally for years now, many are reciprocal followers. Your thoughts on the security aspect of my cloud storage gave me cause for thought. You are about 23 hours ahead of Vegas, it’s 9:00 PM here Sarurday night. Happy late Sunday! 🇦🇺❤️

    3. I wish, there does come a time when you can get too much. I’m worried things in the ground will rot, like my ginger and my bulbs. It never gets a chance to dry out. Blogging is wonderful for that reason, though I have to admit I am struggling with it all now. Hopefully I will get back to it all. Yeah, never really sure about that cloud stuff. That sounds right, as I’m writing this I”m having my afternoon coffee and it is 3.30pm.

    4. A huge time difference! Maybe you are burnt out on blogging, Leanne. It’s happened to me but I seem to snap back pretty quickly. It will come back to you.

    5. You are almost a day behind us. I think you could be right, but I think it is also that I don’t really know what to blog about. Photography is a big part of my life, but it isn’t all of it. I think I just have to do what I like and not worry about anything else. Thank you John.

    1. I haven’t even considered all the photos from before digital. One day maybe but right now digital is more of a priority. Good luck Dorothy.

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