Time for the Annual Cull

I have spent some time recently doing an annual review of my photo library, getting rid of pictures which didn’t quite make it but which I kidded myself at the time, were not too bad or which I could still rescue. Isn’t it strange how attached we become to some pictures? You remember the trouble you went to in order to take the shot - maybe spending hours sitting waiting for a spectacular sunset that never quite made it, or wading across sandbanks to try and get some interesting birds in flight, but the reality is they just aren’t that good. Yet when they are still relatively new, we are so emotionally attached to them we can’t bear to delete them, remembering only how hard it was to take. By taking a look at them afresh, some time after the event, it becomes much easier to be less emotional and more detached - to appraise more honestly and cull the ones which clearly did not work.

I find that quite strange - why is it we become so attached to the taking of the image rather than being objective about its qualities?

One of the valuable lessons I learned from Ray Lowe whilst I was preparing a panel of images for appraisal by the BIPP for a Licentiateship a couple of years ago, was that you really do have to be brutally honest with yourself about each image. “Its not about whether you like it, its whether its any good” Ray told me - and he is absolutely right of course. I admit to still having one or two I am reluctant to let go, as despite their apparent flaws, I still like them but on the whole I am much more realistic now and find it much easier to hit the delete key when necessary. However, I still perform this annual culling as there are always others which I look at and think “why on earth did I keep this one?”

There is another benefit to this exercise - occasionally I come across one which I hadn’t paid much attention to at the time but which now, looking at it through fresh eyes, suddenly looks like it has ‘got something’. It is always great when that happens - like finding hidden treasure. I think “how did I miss that before?” but I think it is exactly the same as the example above but in reverse.

We see things differently some time after the event - in some cases, this greater clarity allows us to see a poor image for what it really is, whereas in others, we gain an appreciation that they are in fact better than we previously thought. A good case of swings and roundabouts I’d say. I really enjoy my annual cull - its always interesting and sometimes really worthwhile!