Now with the increasing size of memory cards, most of us have become all too accustomed to snapping at anything. After all, we can separate out the keepers from the trash back in the office.

Delete in the field?

I used to have a policy of not deleting any photo out in the field, but I stopped this a couple of years ago. Now I'm much happier with fewer images and a higher ratio of shots:keepers.

Internal camera memory only

Last week, I had this forced on me. I was out with my small compact only. It's a Panasonic DMC FX150 and great for situations like this where an SLR would not have been acceptable. So I just threw the compact in my bag, just in case. I had a chance at a nice image and switched on the camera only to find there's no flash card inside. For once I didn't think internal camera memory was a gimmick, but it did only leave me with 6 images at full resolution.

The result

I ended the outing with 1 image spare and 5 shots probably worth keeping. None were exceptional, but then I wasn't out specifically to take photos. Not a bad result.

The side-effect

It really did reinforce the idea that photographers are there to take photos, not to fill up hard-drives.