There was a certain magic to opening a box of exposed transparencies... an almost childlike wonder of the exploration of your own work. In years long past, Sports Illustrated would return a few hundred rolls of my out takes from the Kentucky Derby, and I would diligently sort through them, cataloging and filing the best of them. Making notes on what worked and what didn't. How much film I shot, what they kept in the magazine's files, and what I needed to do the next time. That process usually happened a month or two after the event. Now, two days after returning home from Lousiville, I am finishing going through the more than 15,000 files I burned through with the 25 Nikon bodies I used last weekend at Churchill Downs. The images are all sorted, captioned, and stored on raids using Aperture.
I can find any image through metadata tagging in less than a second.
In days gone by, it would have taken me a few seconds just to get out of my chair to head to the file cabinets to start a search.
I suppose it's in my German DNA, but I love the efficiency.
I enjoyed the magic, but I don't miss film.
A few images of Derby fashion for this week's digital version of Sports Illustrated.