About
The title of this blog, Bits Are Cheap, comes from a phrase I’ve been using for a number of years to explain to others why I keep virtually all the photos I take with my various digital cameras. I rarely ever delete a photo.
Why?
Because bits are cheap. Bits are the smallest storage unit in normal computers, each representing one of two values, either a zero (0) or a one (1). Eight bits make a byte. 1024 bytes make a kilobyte. 1024 kilobytes make a megabyte. 1024 megabytes make a gigabyte. 1024 gigabytes make a terabyte. And so on. (Note: some data storage device makers use 1000 instead of 1024 as their multiple, robbing us of our bits along the way).
Modern consumer computers regularly come with hundreds of gigabytes of storage (at least now in 2010 when I wrote this), and one terabyte drives (around eight trillion bits of data) can be had for just north of $100 (again, in mid-2010).
Bits are cheap. That’s a reality now.
So why bother deleting photos if storage space is so inexpensive? That why I don’t trash them.
Who knows if a slightly different view of a penguin, a darker view of a nighttime street, a blurrier fish, or some other shot that was once less ideal than another might not come in handy at some point, especially as digital image editing software continues to make incredible strides.
So welcome to Bits Are Cheap, a place where I share some of the image bits I’ve stashed away over the years.
- Jake Richter
P.S. For my other work, check out the Blogroll at right.
