I have a few zip-lock bags with medium format film that needs to be developed. I couldn’t tell you what images have been marinading for years.  Undeveloped film is the ultimate in excitement and that feeling has been lost due to digital photography. What’s a close second? Depends whom you ask.

Digital Photography brings us a rapid fire trigger finger. We shoot from the hip with abundance and unload the memory cards over and over.  Before we know it, external hard drives are required to store our archives full of photographs.   We’ve created quite an archive and, unless you’re rain man or something, you’ve probably forgotten about a lot of photos from a few years ago.

Quickly, it’s not hard to see that undeveloped film and a huge archive of digital photography become connected.

That leads into the photograph today! I was excited looking through my photographs from Vancouver [shot in 2008].  I took so many photographs that processing them as HDR photos must take place over time.  This is why a bunch of the shots get forgotten.  The images aren’t forgotten because I think they suck; it’s a simple case of too many.  I can only imagine the archive of HDR superstar and world traveler Trey Ratcliff. That dude shoots more than anyone it seems.

The excitement of this single photograph is because I know that there are more of these that need attention.  I mean, it was enough to spark this discussion wasn’t it?

If you don’t like the word “forgotten” just interchange it with the idea of waiting until it’s the right time to process the photographs.  It’s a bit more of a spiritual approach!

Either way, using digital photography, we’re building massive archives of files.  Whether you forget about some of those photographs or you’re waiting for the right time to come, there’s excitement when you get to it.

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Does anyone else have a big supply of undeveloped film? When’s the right time to dive in?