Pictures....and thumb drives

Taking up space....

December 3

Since shortly before Olivia was born, Ann and I have been the proud owners of a digital camera. Our first was an Olympus D-something, which we greatly enjoyed. It was a 1.3 mexapixel point and shoot, and used a 32 MB smart media card. I think we could get around 200 pictures on it.

Then we got our second one, also an Olympus, supposed to be slightly better than the one we had. I don't remember the resolution, just the battery hungry ways. I don't know how many pictures you could put on it, because the batteries only held out for about 5!

Now we use a Kodak Easyshare, with rechargeable batteries, and a 1 GB SD card. This one will hold about 600 pictures or so.

Moving on, Ann loves taking pictures of the kids, and I love the fact that digital photos don't take as much space to store. Neither are they heavy to move.

However, organization is one of our concerns for the veritable cornucopia of pictures we have. Back-up in case of computer failure is another concern. So, what solution did we seek?

I bought Ann 4 Kingston thumb drives: 3 4GB drives, one for each child, and an 8GB for other pictures. That way, she can organize onto those drives, and we can store them in the fire-proof file box we have in the closet.

So, I'm looking at the files, and I've realize something. I think our picture files are small, because I haven't really paid much attention since that first camera. Guess what?

We already have 18 GB worth of pictures. Steven's alone are 5 GB. Olivia has the smallest file, though she has the most pictures, because many of hers are from the older camera.

Why the difference? The files are bigger. Now, technically, the resolution is greater, so the pictures are higher quality, but that makes them get bigger. Bigger takes more space, even in the digital world.

It starts me thinking about the things we carry around in life. Our actions are, in a way, like taking pictures. What we choose to do is a snapshot of what matters to us at that moment, and our memories carry around those effects.

What becomes the challenge for us is that, like the picture files on our computer, as we grow and mature, our actions store with a higher resolution. There's more detail, more connection. More lasting impact. And they take up more space, require more effort to deal with.

It's not guaranteed to be a bad thing, but it could be, if we're not mindful of our actions. Are you considering what you choose each day? The longer you go, the more impact those decisions bear on you.

Doug