Image of the Week: Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah

Don't throw it away.

I'm an incorrigible packrat. I collect cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and styrofoam peanuts to re-use for shipping. I've got dozens of old 35mm film canisters that I use to sort screws, nails, and other minute tool items. I've got more camera bags than cameras, much to my wife's disdain, and have no plans to reduce their burgeoning numbers. If anything, I might buy more.

Most importantly, I never throw away old film or delete digital image files unless I'm 100% confident they're a complete loss.

My office is stuffed to the gills with file boxes of carefully categorized and sleeved film, and my digital archive now spans over a Terabyte of data, which is mirrored on a companion set of disks stored offsite.

Why do I go to such lengths? Because you never know when you'll be able to use something. Or, in this case, when technology (or your skill) advances enough to enable you to realize the photograph you envisioned when you originally tripped the shutter.

This week's photograph is from Park Avenue in Arches National Park. I captured it late one overcast, November day back in 2006. I've scanned it before, but for some reason I was never able to extract the look I originally intended; the scans were flat, uninteresting. Before long, I filed the image away and forgot about it, moving on to other projects.

I took it out again one slow, snowy day here in Vermont and made another scan. Whether it's the new scanning software I'm using, my increased skill with scanning, or just committing the time to be patient with the image (perhaps it's all three), I finally produced a scan that fulfilled my original vision. It's now a valuable addition to my portfolio.

Storage space is cheap. Listen to your inner packrat. Don't throw it away.

Technical Data

Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah was photographed with a Tachihara 4x5 Field Camera and a Fujinon 150mm ƒ/6.3 lens on Kodak E100VS Transparency Film. The exposure was unrecorded.

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