Last week’s Sunday Travel section of the LA Times featured their annual Summer Vacation Photo spread.

I always wonder how the editors make their selections from among the many hundreds, if not thousands, of photos submitted. And I always wonder if they’d have chosen one of mine.

But, of course, I’ll never know, since I’ve never bothered to enter. (Just between you and me, some of the winning photos aren’t nearly as good as mine!)

I got one of those email messages recently, “Your iCloud storage is almost full. Upgrade to 1 TB for $9.99 per month.” A not-so-subtle reminder to delete, delete, delete. This, despite the fact that I already have moved massive numbers of photos to Google Photos which offers free, unlimited photo storage.

It’s a problem. I like to take photos. Lots of photos. But I don’t like to sift, sort, edit, identify or otherwise organize my photos. I especially don’t like to delete photos. And that’s not considering video, which is a whole ‘nother conversation. It takes ruthlessness to delete, delete, delete. It makes me tired and cranky. It’s not one of my better talents.

You can imagine the wealth of photo resources my company would have if we combined mine with those of all my employees. Going back 30+ years … we could probably rival the Getty Images library! If someone could tell the story of what we do in pictures with a slideshow or video – what an incredible marketing tool that would be.

But that takes time. And a bit of skill. But mostly, that would take organization.

So I had my trusty assistant, Ellen, post a job opening on Craigslist this week for a “Digital Librarian.” I’m envisioning a young photography student who needs a flexible, part-time job, who can come in and get my bulging library edited and organized. Tagged and identified. Or purged.

I want him/her to be ruthless. But not too ruthless. I don’t like ruthless people.

And this is the point, dear reader, at which I get distracted. Distracted by the word ‘ruthless’. And Google, as she always does, delivers a wealth of information. Following is from a website called, The Word Detective:

“Ruth” was a common word in Middle English, first appearing (as “reuthe”) around the 12th century, meaning “pity or compassion,” and in the 13th century we spoke of a person who was kind, charitable, and just generally felt your pain as being “ruthful.” 

A person who lacked those qualities of kindness and charity, whose only concern was for personal gain and never shed a tear for the victims of his greed, has been, since the early 14th century, known as “ruthless,” literally lacking the quality of “ruth.”

While “ruthless” is alive and well in popular usage today (and “ruthlessness” is even celebrated as a virtue on Wall Street), the sweet and gentle “ruthful” has almost entirely faded from our collective memory. The Oxford English Dictionary labels the word “archaic,” and its most recent citation for its use in print dates from the early 19th century. A search of Google News today for “ruthful” produces the epitaph “Your search – ruthful – did not match any documents,” which a quick perusal of the grim headlines confirms. It seems that this world could do with a “ruth transfusion” as soon as possible.

Okay – back to the subject at hand. Following are a handful of my favorite photos from this calendar year and the story which, in many cases, makes the picture all the more special.

It’s 8:30 on Friday morning, and I could spend many more pleasurable hours choosing photos – but I must stop sometime. I’d love to dedicate a future blog post to YOUR favorite photos – and the story behind the image. Please share yours with me. Email to mmurphy@wowtravelclub.com

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And if you have any suggestions to share about how you organize, categorize and preserve YOUR precious photographic memories, I’d love to know about them. I’m sure it takes a fair bit of discipline, and – yes, even ruthlessness. (And I promise I’ll still like you!)