Purge Rejects
I used to keep every photo I took. Every. Single. One. Then, disk space became a consideration. Sure, it’s “free” on a per-image basis. But over 4TB later, well, it’s not so free. It’s cheap. But not free. It’s certainly not free from a backup, archival, or mental housekeeping point of view.
These days, I purge all the rejects. Out of focus shots. Test shots. Shots where the subject’s eyes are closed. Images that you’d never show your grandma, much less the public. Sure, it’s easy enough to say, “Maybe I can do something with that image someday” and convince yourself to keep it. But you’re lying to yourself. Grow a pair and delete them out of your life.
The tricky line is what to do with the ones that aren’t obvious rejects but which aren’t obvious selects either. Or the 25 alternate shots to the perfect shot you are publishing. I don’t have good advice for you there. That’s a matter of your own comfort level.
The one thing I can say is that you’re getting better as a photographer every time you pick up the camera and use it. Every time you practice, you improve just a bit. Over years, this changes your expectations of your work. If you don’t like a photo you took last week at all, you’re not probably going to like it much better in five years.
