[keithw]

I was doing some housekeeping on my PC and realised that I have over 50,000 photos (all DNG) on my hard disk. What's more, I would have processed the vast majority in Lightroom and exported them as JPGs. And that is where the vast majority remain. I have half a dozen on the wall but that's about it. I have to admit, I wasn't much better in the days of film. In my study are several boxes of prints and even a few dozen transparencies.

So, am I alone in spending hours taking photos and even more hours processing them; only to abandon the finished product on a hard disk?

[BigMackCam]

So, am I alone in spending hours taking photos and even more hours processing them; only to abandon the finished product on a hard disk?

I'm much the same, Keith... although I wouldn't go so far as to say that I abandon them

I don't share many of my photos. The process of taking and processing them, and enjoying the results, is a largely selfish one for me. I do have a few of them printed and hung on my walls, or in frames to display on bedside cabinets. That's quite a recent thing for me, though I hope to do more of that in future.

Much of my photography is in pursuit of personal achievement and the enjoyment that brings to me - specifically, putting my learning into practice and proving to myself that I can take specific types of shots. That might (and often does) involve purely technical rather than compositional skills, and I have a good proportion of shots that I wouldn't class as "keepers" in terms of aesthetic / artistic value, yet they stand as confirmation that I achieved what I set out to do. I keep and tag those photos appropriately, so I can go back to them for reference, just as I do my "serious" photos.

Of my many photos that aren't simply learning exercises, I'm happy to be able to view these on my laptop or larger desktop monitors, on one of the LCD TVs around the house, or - as I already mentioned - occasionally print them for display around my home (more of that in future)

I certainly don't have any desire to leave a legacy of my photography. For me, it's just a hobby... One that I love, for sure, but mostly a selfish pursuit with no motives other than learning and having fun in the moment

[victormeldrew]

Yes, I spend a lot of time post processing, but no I don't just abandon the result. Many I share online, a few of the best end up on my walls and some in photobooks and albums.

[steve_k]

I also have a hard drive filled with dng and jpg files. I do post the jpgs to smugmug so my family can check them out and if they like something they have the ability to download or order prints. I also post to Flickr where I share my photos and see what others are doing. Flickr is also where I typically view my photos and sometimes I go back and revisit the editing as I learn new things.

The past week I have been posting some of my photos here to drive the posts. All in all I’m currently pretty happy with my hobby and all it encompasses. My biggest problem is “That would be nice to have” whether it be a lens, accessory or camera. Just bought a Super Program and shot my first roll of film in about 35 years. Also thinking about a new K-1 or mark ii for my birthday / Christmas if I don’t win the last one. Or maybe I’ll just find a photographer rehab somewhere and check myself in.

[kiwi_jono]

I have even less photos on my wall (3) but I just checked and I have 116,000 files totalling 815GB.
Some of the size is due to me forgetting to delete photos that are not keepers, some due to the there being photos back from 1997 (starting with Fujifilm MX-700 and earlier if you include slide scans) and the size of the K-1 files has not helped.
I do post some to Flickr though (except for family photos).

All my files live on a NAS which is backed up to Backblaze.

Given that I'm a casual amateur, I'm sure many Pentaxians have far greater collections of images but still it is ridiculous as realistically I rarely look back at any images (let alone further PP RAW files). And sorting through the files is a pretty time consuming task too.

[wstruth]

I post most of my photos online. Right now most are made for the Daily or Single Challenges here on PF but I'm starting to explore some other themed groups on Flickr. I like taking pictures and the challenges give me a reason to shoot and try out stuff on my own or for a theme. The photos I keep are eventually saved to a portable hard drive and then CD's. For special events I make photo books (mostly vacations) and I've started to print a few as well. If my photos are not from an event they do get culled for only the ones I like the most. Actually vacation and event photos do as well. Pros keep most of their images, there's no reason why we should not with storage options being as inexpensive as they are now.

[dbs]

All photos are on a hard drives.Some I look at for whatever interests me at the moment.I should "tag them" so I can view whatever subject matter I'm looking for
I just shoot jpeg I post process very little

Dave

[patrick9]

I print a few hang even fewer. Save some toss many. I ma an amateur so not out for anything but my enjoyment It is about time to go thru and toss some that I saved that I don't want to keep anylonger. I save some thinking maybe they will get better with age. But alas it never happens.

[runswithsizzers]

To all: Consider picking out some of your better shots and having books printed.

Many digital images will evaporate into thin air when someone's hard drive dies. (Not yours or mine, of course, because we have ours backed up to multiple locations, right?) Other digital images will be lost when we die and our online accounts expire. Our surviving descendents will throw away the boxes full of our old backups on CD or DVD or whatever, not that it matters because there will be no functioning DVD readers. Digital files will become unreadable as newer versions of software abandon support for files created by older versions. Still other digital files may remain, but unless you have written captions into the metadata no one but you knows when and where they were taken, and that information will be buried with you.

A book, with proper captions will be much more useful to future generations of historians and genealogists than most of our digital files. And you can still look at them by candlelight and share them with friends after enemy hackers have destroyed the power grid and all your digital files are worthless.

There are several services that will print your images on good paper and bind them into nice hard or softcover books - as few, or as many copies as you want. Yes, they are somewhat expensive, but still less than having a stack of prints made. And the book is compact, self-contained, portable, and a book allows the viewer to easily read your captions.

I have made four books as travelogs of trips, and also a photo book of family history. I used Blurb, but there are other similar services that will probably work just as well.

[microlight]

I suspect that it’s the same for most of us! What I do additionally though, is to have many hundreds of favourite landscape and travel photos as PC desktop background, changing every minute.

This is why the bulk of my pictures tend to be landscape orientation.

[chrism888]

I've just over 10 thousand images collected over 30+ years of photography inc digital scans of Slides, all the images on the walls in the house are stuff that's been shot mainly be me or by the Mrs, approaching 15 - 20 x A3 framed images


I also put quite a few online mainly to Ephotozine for critique and Pentax Forum UK, I also have my own web site which I try to keep fresh and update as frequently as poss, I've previously had galleries in 2 hotel restaurant's where I've sold some framed images over the years and currently have a gallery in a local pub / restaurant again selling a few framed images.

[timb64]

Nearly 10,000 shared online at Flickr, about a dozen printed out and hung at home,several published in a local magazine and two photo books with highlights of big trips I've made.Mostly though I take photos for my own pleasure and the enjoyment of post processing/tinkering with the results.

[MatKus]

I don't spend much time in Lightroom. I don't even have cataloged all my pictures, but all are stored on HDD of my PC and copy on NAS.
I've never printed anything for myself, but had gallery in local library.
But I have like 100 pics in my wallpaper directory and windows swaps it every few minutes randomly.
I make a lot of pictures, but sometimes I wander myself what for, when even I don't watch it, after copying it from SD to HDD sometimes it stays there not watched for few months.

[dbs]

The screensaver has some pictures to choose from....
Thats about it

Dave

[keithw]

Thanks folks, it seems I am not alone

It's funny/sad that when I read that people use their photos as wallpaper and screensaver, I thought "So do I". And then someone said about uploading thousands onto Flickr, guess what - so did I. But I suppose wallpapers and screensavers are primarily viewed by oneself, and with one or two exceptions, most of my uploads onto Flickr had very few views. Perhaps that's it. Am I looking for ego-boosting compliments? To be reassured that I am a good photographer? I think that is probably the case. It explains why I always felt a little fed up that my photos might scrape a dozen or so views on Flickr when someone else's photo (which, in my very humble opinion, was no "better" than mine) would be seen by hundreds or even thousands.

Ah well. perhaps I need to create a few photobooks to leave around the house when people visit. Maybe dig out my old 800*600 photoframe and load it up with photos.

Finally, an apology. I obviously didn't check properly as this same question was asked back in January. Sorry!