Down Memory Lane and into a Ditch

Paul Lester and Mark Graf are responsible for taking up a great deal of my time last week. On January 6th, Paul Lester set this all in motion by asking some interesting questions about the subject of all those photos that we never make public. Now, he couldn’t leave well enough alone, but continued to probe this issue until he got Mark Graf stirred up. Finally, Mark followed by challenging his readers to dig through old files and rescue some photos from “picture purgatory”. Naturally, Paul responded with a couple of beautiful shots that I almost certainly would have shown immediately. Irresponsible behavior, if you ask me. Sure, "picture purgatory" is a delightfully descriptive phrase and one that I will long use, but this business of tempting suggestible types to set aside their work and spend valuable time poring over old photos is inexcusable. No conscience, there’s the truth of it. Shameful.

Of course, all their talk got to me, and before I came to my senses I was turning on external drives that don’t always get cranked up and searching old files for lost treasure. Big mistake. Mostly, I realized that the photos I examined frankly are in picture purgatory precisely because they belong there. I did some deleting, but too many were left on those drives. I kept them because I found, repeatedly, that while I wasn’t moved to share the photos, many of them reminded me of a time or a place, and I wasn’t quite ready to let go of the memento. I did enjoy poring over a folder of photos from a shoot of one of our horses that had gone well. Then, I spent far too much time processing a couple of those. I am holding Paul and Mark directly responsible for my failure to meet those deadlines that I had given myself last week.

Dropping all the mock outrage, I will admit that I enjoyed very much the challenge and the trip down memory lane—thanks Paul and Mark (most likely, I wouldn’t have met those deadlines anyway)—and, eventually, I probably will dig out more of those shots to post here. The one that I ultimately chose for this post reminds me of the times spent at various points along the Little Tujunga Wash. This was one of those shots that I had pretty much ignored at the time and had forgotten about. It’s nothing special, but it reminds me of so many of the scenes from the wash and I enjoyed going back in time, for a few moments. Still, in spite of the entertaining trip down memory lane, most of my future time will be spent making more photos. Not because I need to, but because there never are enough, and I am no where close to being done with soaking up the world that I live in.