Clearing house...

So I was going through one of my old external hard drives trying to clear out some space so I can start backing up my current photos.  HOLY CRAP!  Did I take a LOT of shitty pictures over the years!   Hey, I'll call a spade a spade.  My photos REALLY sucked back in the day.  And no, I'm not going to share any of those with you.  Suffice it to say I had no business being behind a camera.

I read something a while back or maybe my wife told me, but it's a Feng shui thing where one should throw away things that are broken.  I guess it's like a negative energy thing.  If you keep broken appliances or dead plants in your house then you're surrounding yourself with negativity.  Now I might argue the point when it comes to that perfect fitting, faded pair of jeans or grandpa's old, and broken, pocket watch.  There are some things where sentimentality wins out.  But that old blender or those wilted flowers need to go the way of the dodo when they no longer serve their purpose.  My old photos are no different.  Amazing how many crappy photos I had.  I cleared out over 100GB of photographs that I'd taken since 2005 and I'm still not done purging that hard drive.

As I looked at all those photos I thought to myself, "Wow, thousands of shutter clicks died in order to get that one picture."  To be honest, many of those "final" photos were nothing more than godawful snap shots.  I remember at one time thinking that I would hold on to all these photos because I was going to re-edit them or at least keep them for posterity to show how far I've come.  Well, unlike our

old school yearbooks or early family photos, there is nothing remotely worthwhile in keeping old crappy ass pictures.  If I could go back in time and talk to myself while I was taking those pictures I'd probably say, "What the F**k are you doing?"  I remember thinking at the time I was getting some great shots.  Wow, I should've been tested for banned substances.  I don't know what was worse, the poor quality RAW images or the over-Photoshoped finals.  I'd like to think my photography has gotten better but I'll have to wait and ask myself that in a few years.  Hopefully when I'm purging my old photos then I won't feel nearly as much shame as I do now.

The seasons change.  Plants grow and then die.  Clothes fade and wear out.  Each year we clear out our garages and our yards in order to make room for all the new stuff and before we know it all the new stuff becomes old and eventually must go.  Some relationships are the same.  There are those those that will stay with us for years to come, kinda like those perennials we planted years ago.  Others might be more like annuals.  We enjoy them for a particular time or season in our life but eventually they wither away but it doesn't mean they are any less special then those that are with us year after year.  I'm not trying to be cavalier or insensitive about this but I think it's ok that some folks only make guest appearances as opposed to those that are reoccurring characters in the story of our lives.

So some photos I'll keep forever, or as long as the "1's" and "0's"stay aligned on my computer.  Others I'll dump almost as quickly as I take them.  But no matter how long they stay with me I'm glad I took them all.  Every one marks a time in my life and in my personal growth as a photographer.  The same can be said for all the relationships I've experienced in my life.  I'm grateful for those that have endured the years with me as well as those that have been with me for what seems only a fleeting moment.  I might cringe at that old crappy photo I took or think upon a friendship that withered away years ago but I have no regrets.  They were all episodes in this TV series of life.  Here's hoping my personal sitcom doesn't get cancelled any time soon.