Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-07-18)

14 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

Doyouhavesomethingyou’dliketogetoyourchest?Sendusyourthoughtsinaround

500 wordstotheaddressonpage 22 andwinayear’sdigitalsubscriptiontoAP,worth£79.

‘M

orepixelsonlymean

I’mgoingtoneed

morestoragespace!

I’llhavetobuyanother

6TB hard drive just togetthroughtherest

of the year!’

You see commentslikethisallthetime

when a new camerawithahigher

resolution is launched.Yes,it’struethat

high-resolution sensorswillobviously

create larger fi les thataregoingtorequire

more storage space,butmyquestion

would be ‘How manyimagesofthat

sunset do you need?’

The reality is that thevastmajorityofus

take hundreds, probablythousands,of

images that we will nevereditorshow

another person. They’llremainunlovedin

the purgatory of F:/photosfortherestof

our lives or until theharddrivefails(back

up your images, people).Theydeserveto

be put out of their misery.

Having recently lookedthroughmylast

fi ve years of landscapephotossearching

for entries for LandscapePhotographer

of the Year, I realisedjusthowmuchall

of the above appliedtome.Outofafew

thousand photos thatIhavetaken,

there were only a handfulthatI

decided to enter. Don’tgetmewrong,

there were dozens thatIwasproudof,

many more I enjoyedtaking,andacouple

I’ve been meaning toedit,butthereare

hundreds of ‘slight variations’thatjust

weren’t quite right. TherearetimesIhave

gone out shooting indull,flatlight,purely

because I wanted togooutandtake

some photos.

For me photographyisasmuchabout

the experience. I enjoyedgettingout

taking those images,eventheterrible

ones, but I have hadthepracticeandthe

fresh air, and now feelhappytolet

hundreds of these photosgo.I’mgoingto

hitdelete on hundreds,maybethousands

ofimages over the nextmonthorso.

I’m not talking aboutholidayorfamily

photos, or shots of specialoccasions.They

arememoriesforme,andhopefully

interestingforfuturegenerations,unlike

thehundredsofdullimagesfromthetop

ofMamTorImusthavetaken.While

professionalphotographersneedtokeep

completearchives,thevastmajorityofus

couldbenefitfrombeingmoreselectivein

whatwekeep.

I’mapproachingthelimitofmystorage

space–myintentionistomakeroomfor

newimagesinsteadofupgrading.Ido

haveaslightworryaboutthoseimagesI’ll

rediscoverbutbydeletingolderimages

first,I’llhavetimetofindanythatreally

warrantasecondglance.

Ithinkitwillmakemeabetter

photographerasI’llthinkbeforeIfirethe

shutter,andI’llbecomeabettereditorby

beingaharshercriticastowhatpasses

fromcardtoharddrive.Itsoundsalot

morelikeshootingonmedium-format

film,doesn’tit?Now,there’sanidea.

Richard Sibley was formerly Deputy Editor

of Amateur Photographer. He now writes about

cameras and photography as well as runs the Photo

Gear News YouTube channel. Find him on Instagram

at @richsibley.

Higher resolutionsshouldn’tmeanhavingto

buy morestoragespace.Perhapsweshould

just be moremindfuloftheimageswekeep

‘Themajorityofuscould

bene

 t from being more

selective in what we keep’

Viewpoint

Richard Sibley

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS COLUMN ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER MAGA ZINE OR TI MEDIA LIMITED

There’s an argument to be had about being

selective in what you shoot and keep

©

MARK

MAWSON

CONTENT

FOR

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MAY

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Tamron lens review

We test the compact 70-180mm

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APOY Round 3 Results

The deserving winners of the macro

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