The Big Deletion, Making Room for More

I will start with a little story about how we got here today and what inspired me to blog after six years of developing my craft as a photographer.

I’ll occasionally do a pass of old photos in my Lightroom catalog for various reasons. Usually, I’m reminiscing or looking for inspiration. My most recent pass was not as fun. I was pushing 25,000 photos in my catalog and needed some purging. I have some bad habits that have accumulated over the years. I will return from a trip with 100s, sometimes 1000s of photos. I will import them all into Lightroom. I’ll find my favorites to edit and share. I’ll also delete any blatantly bad images. This leaves many photos hanging out in limbo. Some are tricky edits that require a little more TLC. Many photos are bursts where I only wanted 1 or 2 from the set. There are also a lot of different compositions of the same scene. In my younger days, I used bracketing to capture multiple exposures of the same shot, so I didn’t have to worry about missing the correct exposure.

This left many photos that just needed to be deleted. However, I’m also terrified of deleting a memory I wanted to hang on to. Every time I pass through an old section of my catalog, it’s an emotional experience. It’s like I’m back in time and able to feel how I felt then. This is beautiful, and I never want to lose that, but at the same time, I don’t need 30 photos of the same mountain from different angles. I’ve pushed off this task for so long because of the time it would take to review and ensure I’m not deleting anything that should be cherished.

I spent three days reviewing all but the last year in my catalog. It wasn’t three straight days. I took breaks to sleep and attend meetings and stuff like that, but it was the main focus in my mind. Anytime I wasn’t actively doing something else, I was in Lightroom reviewing old photos. I mainly focused on the low-hanging fruit, bad exposures, and repetitive shots. I did fall into a few traps. Whenever I go through old photos, some photos that I didn’t see before jump out at me. I also always have some new editing tricks in my tool belt. Each pass usually results in a new favorite photo to share.

This was my most successful pass, as I deleted 6,000 photos from my catalog. I went through the first five years of my catalog, the most significant pass I had ever done. It was such a journey. I relived many of my favorite memories and felt many emotions from those times, good and bad.

Once I hit delete on those 6,000 photos, I felt significantly relieved. A task I had been putting off for years, which seemed to get more enormous every time I put it off, was finally done.

Reliving all of these memories reminded me of something. One of my goals in starting Khalogram Creative was to share my stories. To share the images I’ve captured along my travels. To share the beauty in nature. I have been posting my photos on Instagram, a garbage platform, and calling it a day. I’ve just been checking the box of sharing because I posted a photo online. I’ll admit, there has been a lot of imposter syndrome at play. I’ll often write a little story for the Instagram caption but then think it’s dumb and delete it.

I will use this blog to share those stories I have kept to myself for so long.

I also dream of teaching future photographers. I love teaching. It’s a massive part of my identity. The idea of combining photography and education brings me much joy. I will post completed sections in the blog as I develop my photography curriculum—all for free.

Buckle up. We’re going all over the place.

Here is the photo that jumped out at me from the big deletion.

The Oregon Coast - a beach appears through a thick forest.