Are you up for a photo challenge?
I needed a photo challenge to set me straight.
The problem was, I was shooting digital photographs and rattling off a whole bunch like there was absolutely no cost. Ya know, spray-n-pray. I wasn’t thinking about how much time that’d take to go through and edit. I wasn’t thinking about how much raw data I was creating.
I was thinking, “I don’t wanna miss the shot!”
Well, that was until I hit the wall. I had a fairly expensive 2Tb external SSD. (Solid State Drive) Yeah, they’re expensive and toward the end of the year, it was almost at full capacity. In one year, I’d made two terabytes of data? This cannot be good. How was this sustainable? I had all these photographs and many of them weren’t ever going to be needed.
Cue the dramatic montage music!
I started to cull. And I culled hard. Oh my goodness. All these event photographs, or portrait sessions, 100’s, maybe 1000’s of absolutely unnecessary photographs, all stacked on top of each other. 10 photos of the same moment, just a fraction of a second difference between the next. This is too much overwhelm. Ya feel?
Then I saw it. One thing started to become clear; my film rolls, when I was shooting on my Bronica SQb with 120 film, gifting me no more than 12 photographs per roll, each one of those held more than just data. They held feelings. Held significance. Even the bad photos felt more worthwhile. Not for their technical brilliance, but for their attached memories. For the way they effortlessly transported me back to those very moments.
In the years that have followed, I shifted how I make digital photos. I started to shoot digital like it was film. In the morning, I’d ‘load a roll’ – I’d choose my ISO, how many photos I could make – and I’d head out with a film-like mindset.
How did this photo challenge change my photographs?
It changed everything. Well, except for how many photographs I got that I was happy with. Actually, no, scrap that; it improved how many photos felt worthwhile.
The biggest difference came in the form of hard drive space. In a year, I created less than half the previous years’ data. I wasn’t shooting less, but I was much more selective on how often I pressed the button.
And because there was no filler, no bubble wrap around each photograph, no wasted shutter-slaps to fill hard drives, I didn’t have to cull. I didn’t have to edit 400 versions of the same photo because I was on burst mode, shooting 12 photos a second hoping to luck my way to the perfect moment. I got my time back.
It’s easy to think there’s no cost to the spray’n’pray shooting style. But, when you’re playing with more megapickles, there absolutely is a cost to that. Be it data storage, or time spent culling. That’s a cost few of us consider.
So, are you up for the challenge?
Could you head out with one ‘roll of film’ in your camera? Could you limit yourself to 36, 24 or even just 12 photographs in a session?
This is a photo challenge I set many of our students. It’s usually met with resistance, but shifts to elation upon completion.
“It’s so freeing”
Want to try it out?
- Go out for an afternoon, be it an hour or 5.
- Only allow yourself to shoot maximum 36 photos.
- Don’t cheat: No deleting
How did it change the way you shoot?