I get a lot of positive comments on social media for the images I share on my website and Instagram.  These comments are appreciated.  I work hard to find the best shooting locations, and I try hard to capture memorable moments at the events I photograph.  Having said all this, as the subject of this post suggests, not every photo is a winner, no matter how hard you try.

For every image like the one below, I usually cull out another 9 like image that follows

For every hour I spend taking pictures, I typically spend at least another hour reviewing and editing the images from that event.  It is not uncommon to come home with over 1000 images from a football game.  The exact number varies a bit by sport.  Through practice, I have learned that a two step process usually works best for sifting the gold from the dross.  In my first pass, I cull out all the images that are total duds.  Poor focus, bad exposure, and poor composition are all factors that can land a photo in the “dud” pile.  Then I make a second pass, and I select the images for the image gallery from the images that made it through the initial cull.  Frequently half of the images from the event end up in the dud pile.  The final gallery from the event typically only contains 10% of the images taken at the event.

In case you are wondering how I manage to sort through so many images, stay tuned.  I plan on discussing some of the hardware and software I use for that process in a future blog post.