All those pics

I have taken literally tens of thousands of photographs.  I last year had the shutter replaced on my camera.  It was guaranteed to 200,000 clicks.  I'm sure I had taken at least that many with the camera.  This year I have eclipsed 10,000.   The question is what to do with all these photographs?  Delete.  I have been dumping photographs at an ever accelerating rate.   I have 4 terabytes of external hard drives sitting here on my desk filled with photographs and my camera is only 8 megapixel.   But, I do own 3 other cameras.  Anyway I take a lot of pics.  I had a 2 terabyte drive fail last week.  I did not gasp and grab my chest.  I just disconnected and put it in a drawer.  One of these days I will get it recovered.  It is no big deal.  After all since it happened I have taken about 1000 pics.  I am on my way to replacing it with different photographs.

All this leads me to the question: Why?  If I was taking them to because I thought they were all great I would rush off and get that hard drive recovered. I would quit deleting.  Photography in the beginning was to document travels, family, things of beauty.   Now it has just become a thing.  I just do it.  I keep looking for a new challenge.  I want it to be difficult.  I want to have to think about it.  How will the lighting effect the mood, the pose,  the setting.  I want to go places where few people have been or none.  I do not like standing in the same place as legions of others, unless I can do something unique.  Sure I do it, but the thrill is making it different.

Wait!....I just remembered some of the pics on that hard drive.  I gotta get those pics.