I was looking back at some old photos albums this week of my student days in the 1980s. The world of photography was very different in those days. Digital cameras did not exist, and instead I would take maybe 30 pictures in a year using my film camera. I did not know whether they had been any good till I used up a film, and sent it off to be processed. A week or so later, I would get my pictures back, throw away the rubbish ones and put the others in an album. Every photograph was precious.
These days I take maybe a thousand pictures a year on my phone. I often take five or six of the same thing, so that I can choose the best. Because there are so many, they are no longer special. Maybe an interesting one will pop up on a screen saver on my TV, but more often than not, they are looked at briefly and then forgotten.
For many years I tried to manage this situation by choosing my favourite pictures each year and getting them printed off to go in an album, But I realised this week that the last time I did that was 2018.
So I am faced with a conundrum. Should I get some pictures printed off as I did before? Should I find some other way of curating the large numbers into a manageable selection. Or should I just accept that photographs are no longer special, and treat them as a throwaway commodity.
What do you think?
Pete's Blog 
Hi Pete. I’m a bit the same. I have a lot of photos I’ve taken since the late 70’s when I was a teenager. At the time they were quite precious to me and some still are. However, looking at many of them now often makes me sad as some close family are gone and they remind me of experiences I will never have again. It’s not something I ever expected when I took them.
When I do look at them I prefer to look at them on a monitor or my iPad. A few years ago I scanned many of them. This way I could give copies to my children. I also had the intention of getting rid of the hard copies but I’ve never been able to bring myself to do that.
Sorry to hear you are sad looking at them Garry. Photos are usually of happy times so maybe you can remember them and smile.