Light Trails on Lake Shore Drive by taffy

Light Trails on Lake Shore Drive

My seasonal project culling photos from 5 hard drives before transferring them is moving slower than a snail's pace. In two days, I've deleted about a thousand photos, freeing several GB of hard drive space. Sounds like progress, right? Except that was simply for January and February 2016! And a few from 2014. In the process, I've found a few that were worth saving as a year ago, I didn't know how to process to address problems -- in this case it was the blown out white light trails. This year, I knew how to use LR ND filter and related sliders and ta-da, I have a picture I quite liked! So, I've decided to create separate folder of 'new discoveries in my old files' and this is the first. Will post these occasionally in my extras album.
Main album image: http://365project.org/taffy/365/2017-01-09
This is fabulous! And this is totally the reason I still have, not only digital photos, but every negative of every photo I've taken since I was 8! I love going back to see what the new possibilities are as they arise!
January 10th, 2017  
@Weezilou Oh my gosh -- that must be hundreds of thousands of photos!! I have ruthlessly removed hundreds of photos from just 2 months. Which probably indicates how many I take that are rubbish to begin with! I've also tossed negatives and slides (the fire made some of those decisions a lot easier). But you are right, I did fine a few that I am surprised I didn't process back then (early 2016 or some from 2014). So I'm not able to just purge...have to look at each one which is taking forever.
January 10th, 2017  
Amazing shot!!!
January 10th, 2017  
I am trying to sort out and make space in the garage. There are boxes in there that haven't been opened since we moved into the house 12 years ago. I feel that I have to go through each box whereas my husband says just toss it! I found a box that had a whole lot of photos in it. Needless to say it took me ages to get through as I went through each album and envelope looking at the snapshots!
Super light trails
January 10th, 2017  
@salza You've totally made my day. I feel like there has to be a faster way, but haven't come up with one! I will say, the fire helped me get rid of a lot of things -- I wouldn't wish that on anyone and wish we hadn't had it, but if there's a silver lining, that is it!
January 10th, 2017  
Why bother taffy. Disk space is cheap - time is not.
January 10th, 2017  
@terryliv A very good question! That's been my mantra too for years, but it's a pain to have so many different hard drives when I want to get to an image, so I want to transfer photos within the LR catalogue onto a 3TB drive so they are all in one place (along with the backups on the individual hard drives and on a backup drive). BUT, the transfers are going to take ages to do, and I don't want to transfer a bunch of junk (rubbish photos that I just never got around to deleting). Bottom line, if things were normal (e.g., I was living in my own place, weather was reasonable, I hadn't just retired), I would never take the time to do this. But, with things being what they are, if I'll ever try to do it, the time is now...I'll see how long I can stand it but my goal is to have photos on one drive by mid march, so deleting can happen through February, and then transfers in March.
January 10th, 2017  
Great long exposure. Like you I am also doing a lot of culling.
January 10th, 2017  
Love the light trails, colors
January 10th, 2017  
Definite progress, well done. Love these light trails. I haven't done any of these for eons.
January 10th, 2017  
Beautiful trails
January 10th, 2017  
Amazing capture from what must be a fabulous vantage point.
January 10th, 2017  
Certainly worth while taking a 2nd look at shots and use some of your new skills.. you are making me feel guilty as this is something I need to do... the next rainy day...
January 10th, 2017  
Sam
Light trails are so pretty!
January 10th, 2017  
Let me know how the plan went at the end of March. I'm willing to take bets. LOL.
BTW I've been retired 11 years and I still don't have time (read can't be bothered) to wade through all the pics and sort them out.
January 10th, 2017  
well done
January 10th, 2017  
Progress indeed! Well done you and nice capture!
January 10th, 2017  
awesome shot
January 10th, 2017  
This looks brilliant!
January 10th, 2017  
I do not have 5 hard drives but I culled lots of my photos recently. Now I have to get caught up on tagging. This is fab
January 10th, 2017  
gosh taffy that is quite an undertaking - good luck! nice bonus to discover shots you can improve ... love this one
January 10th, 2017  
this is wonderful - what a job to tackle!
January 10th, 2017  
Wonderful image Taffy!! I think this is where Andie wanted to take us but the bridge was closed. I will have to return to Chicago as a decent light trails shot is on my bucket list!! Oh that sounds like a plan!! LOL!! Fav of course!! I need to do a clean up and transfer to the external hard drive all of last years pics. I want to keep my laptop as clear as possible. Trouble is I have forgotten how to do it. I should keep doing things on the Mac once I have learnt them as I seem to forget how if I don't.
January 10th, 2017  
This is wonderful fav
January 10th, 2017  
A magic image :)
January 10th, 2017  
Wonderful and magical !
January 10th, 2017  
Love it! Fav
January 10th, 2017  
Stunning light trails and interesting to read about how you edited them. Fav
January 10th, 2017  
Fabulous image, I am so glad you went back and rediscovered it. fav
January 10th, 2017  
Brilliant Taffy - Fav
January 10th, 2017  
I must have a go at this!
January 10th, 2017  
Awesome shot. Fav!
January 10th, 2017  
fantastic shot! fav
January 10th, 2017  
Very cool shot
January 10th, 2017  
brilliant colours great trails
January 10th, 2017  
Incredible low light picture.
January 10th, 2017  
@pamknowler It is exactly where we had hoped you'd be able to photograph! So you must come back!
January 10th, 2017  
Simply stunning ! Fav
January 10th, 2017  
Wonderful image, lovely light trails
January 10th, 2017  
@taffy tempting - very tempting!! LOL!!
January 10th, 2017  
@pamknowler Yes yes, do come back! But today we'd be stuck inside -- pouring rain, cold, and high winds. Most unpleasant!
January 10th, 2017  
I thoroughly understand everything you're saying. I have boxes and boxes of slides and prints from not only my post but my parents' and grandparents', and then hard drive after hard drive and CDs and... it's it's own version of hoarders. I wish there were a way to cull that didn't take forever...

I just remembered a photo from 2013 when I really got into trying to get on top of things, and it turned into quite the rabbit hole. http://365project.org/squamloon/365/2013-06-05

In any case, I love that you found this photo and made something of it.
January 10th, 2017  
Amazing shot. Fav
January 11th, 2017  
Love the picture. Jumpin' on the Fav bandwagon!
January 11th, 2017  
Super edit of this newly discovered gem. :) Good for you, to "de-clutter" the folders, too. An excellent task for yucky weather days.
January 11th, 2017  
Wonderful capture!!
January 11th, 2017  
I'm so glad you didn't get killed standing in the middle of the road way like that! Great save of a great shot
January 11th, 2017  
This is cool- it's like runners have pulled ribbons out across the road.
January 11th, 2017  
This is amazing!
January 11th, 2017  
Wow, that was definitely worthy of salvaging. It's kind of fun making these discoveries, isn't it?
January 11th, 2017  
So great!
January 11th, 2017  
Oh I love this, I should try it sometime!
Is this a special filter you used Taffy?
Transferring my 2016 photos onto an external hard drive is on my to do list thanks for the reminder!!
January 11th, 2017  
Thanks!! No special filter needed. Just tripod for long exposure.
January 11th, 2017  
Glad you 'resurrected' this one... stunning light trails shot - how it should be done.
January 11th, 2017  
Fabulous light trails!
January 12th, 2017  
Very nice!!
January 12th, 2017  
Fab!!
January 12th, 2017  
Lovely light trails...Fav
January 13th, 2017  
Awesome shot Taffy.
January 16th, 2017  
FAV! One day I will figure out how to do this! Amazing shot!
January 27th, 2017  
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