“A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.” ~Eudora Welty
Noah at one
Noah at three
Late last night I was in the middle of downloading episodes of The Real Housewives of ATL when my computer decided that it was full. After Thanksgiving dinner, stuffed to the gills with not even an inch left for another bite of stuffing and if there was more stuffing it would puke all over my feet.
No, I don’t know how I think of this stuff except that I can recall that after every Thanksgiving I wish I owned maternity pants.
Anyway, I because I need screen shots I started frantically deleting which led me to well over 3,000 – and I cannot believe I even admitted that – photos from the past four years. Photos are odd to go through don’t you think? Once upon a time things were a certain way and then they got better or they got worse and with each photo you’re reminded of something that was spectacular for one click of the shutter. I feel bad just systematically going through these photos just to get a glimpse of Sheree ‘shifting’ Kim’s wig. You cannot simply delete photos of Paris. It doesn’t matter that you own 28 photos of the Eiffel Tower. It’s the EIFFEL TOWER. You savor that and look and think about what Paris was like. The crepes and the coffee and how much better everything is in Europe. You don’t just hit delete and move on.
Now I am left to find a new hard drive, hoozy whatsit, thingamabob when I return home from vacation. I have no clue what though and I thankfully there’s a genius bar to help me out. But I’m just a little sad each time I click delete and poof. All I have left is a memory.
4 Comments
One of the best things I ever did was toss every single picture of my ex (stalker) boyfriend after we broke up. I removed all evidence that he existed just so I wouldn’t have to run across it some five years later. He wasn’t worth the memories. And this? Has made me think about him again and I wish I could take my brain out and set it on fire until all the memories of him were ash I could blow them away. I sometimes wish you could dispose of the memories as easily as the pictures.
Have you considered going through them and shrinking a bunch? Do you know the actual resolution they were taken at? I have my camera set to take pictures at the absolute highest resolution. So, high that I can likely take a 4×6 snapshot of family and blow it up to a 24×36 framed print, at minimum, and not lose ANY resolution. You can save yourself a LOT of space that way and not actually delete any pictures. I try to go through and shrink down and save over top the original, of all family/people snapshots. Because the odds of me wanting to blow any of them up to a 24×36 frame is pretty unlikely. Just a thought!
Oh no! Don’t delete them … burn them to a DVD, but don’t delete!!
When my ex and I divorced I wanted to get rid of all existence of him … but I felt that by doing that I would be erasing MYSELF over the past 10 years. I was torn. So, I burned all photos from that decade of my life onto a DVD labeled “Past Lives” and threw it into a box somewhere. Do I ever plan on “visiting” that DVD? Nope. But I feel better knowing that I didn’t demolish myself along with the dumb ass jackal.
I’m doing the same right now! My hard drive had ONE GIG left, so I’m archiving all my photos on DVD, backing up to my external and Scott’s desktop, and deleting! It’s like purging–feels good, oddly.