going back in time

It’s wonderful what new technology allows you to do.

I received a 500GB internal hard drive for my Mac Pro today, and so I finally have the capacity to store all of my photos from the past two and a half years in a single place. Better than that, I can store them all inside of Apple Aperture, which makes sortation, viewing, rating/ranking, and batch editing much easier.

I have mixed feelings about the process so far. On a technical level, it’s pure brilliance. Select a bunch of folders, click import, and we’re golden.

On a personal level, it’s a little more complicated.

Two and a half years of missed focus, bad exposures, lame or cliché compositions, and a general sense of ineptitude. Failed experiments.

On the bright side, I’ve come across dozens, if not hundreds, of photos that I had completely forgotten about. Photos that somehow evaded my selects previously, or that I couldn’t use before, but now can because of greater editing proficiency and understanding of the digital processes. Photos that were immediately recognized as excellent quality, but editing had to be postponed because of another project of greater urgency.

The greatest complication though, is Jennifer. I’ll spare you all the story, but the long and short of it is that she and I were together for most of those two years, and are not anymore.

Every dozen or so photos I’ll hit a string of photos of her, or of me that she took. Sometimes it reminds me of really hard times, where she and I struggled, either with each other, circumstance, her parents, or all of the above. But some of the times cannot be described under any category other than the happiest moments of my life.

A truly great photograph will have an emotional impact on anyone who views it. I have a fair number of photos that meet that criteria (well, maybe not anyone, but certainly your average individual. But it’s very strange how great the effect is on the person or people involved. How a simple image can bring back what feels like an entire lifetime that one had forgotten.

All things considered, I think going back in time isn’t so bad.