Delete Not Note

A note, a reminder: do not delete.

In class yesterday this idea caught some folks by surprise. I don't know what makes an idea resonate, or when.

Here it is again: do not delete pictures from your digital camera when you're taking pictures. Instead, after the pictures have been downloaded to the computer, reformat the card with the camera's "format" menu.

There are two reasons for this:



First, using the delete option on the camera can sometimes create disk index errors on the card itself, which can corrupt the card and make it unusable. I've seen this happen several times. Once the card became entirely unreadable and all the pictures on it were lost. Other times only a few pictures were lost. But every time a disk corruption occurs it's a mess and a headache. Not deleting in-camera can prevent it from happening.

(An aside that's related: be sure the camera is power-off when inserting or removing a camera card, as that can cause disk index corruption too.)

Second, why worry about deleting? If you fill up the card, put in another one. Certainly you have another camera card, right? (You should always carry a second card -- stop reading and go buy one right now if you don't already own one, in fact, buy two extra cards while you're at it).

The underlying point here is that digital space is cheap. Far cheaper than film ever was. Keeping that accidental frame doesn't cost anything.

In fact, don't delete it even after you've downloaded it onto the computer! Those "bad" pictures are records of moments when you were looking and thinking, even if you don't like them much at the instant they're made. And even the worst frames might have value later, but you'll never know when or if they might — unless you let them hang out in the back of hard drive waiting to be rediscovered.

This frame of my son on the beach in San Diego is yet another case in point, for me. I do this all the time. My Lightroom catalog of daily and family pictures has thousands (and thousands!) of pictures -- many of which are "accidents" or "mistakes."

Periodically, while I'm on the phone, or browsing the web, I let the catalog play through a random slide show. This frame popped up today and caught my eye in a new way, and made me stop. It resonated.

I have no idea if it will for you, or if I'll like it tomorrow, but for the moment it brings up memory and relationships that have gravity. I don't remember taking it. I don't remember if I felt it was an accident or a waste, but I'm glad I never deleted it.

Don't delete. Reformat the card after downloading (to maintain the disk index on the card).

But don't delete the random accidents from the computer even after downloading (to give memory and history a chance to resurface in the future).