Mining for magick – freeing up space

When your memory card is full and your ADHD brain shuts the camera down. One of the souls in my community reached out with this message. I asked them if they wouldn’t mind me sharing my response in a blog post. As I had quite a few ideas on ADHD-aware photography tips that wouldn’t fit into an insta message and I know that they won’t be the only one feeling this.

“Hiya! I hope you don’t mind me messaging… if I fill up a memory card for my camera I find it impossible to choose which photo to use or keep, so I just get a new memory card. This year I can’t afford to do that, and even though photography is my absolute favourite thing, I haven’t picked up my camera in months because the card is full. Now I know I have ADHD, I understand why, but I wondered if you have any solutions or advice?”

When I read this message, my first response was a sense of knowing that feeling and also wanting to try and help get them back out shooting, because I know how regulating it is to immerse in nature with your camera.

This isn’t just a question about memory cards

It’s a question about what happens when a nervous system built for curiosity, awe and the joy of the immersive hyperfocus, is asked to perform a low-dopamine task that carries emotional weight, the pressure of the overwhelm and the fear of getting it wrong can make the task feel insurmountable.

If you have ADHD and this probably feels familiar, for all kinds of low-dopamine tasks and just adds another open tab in our brains. So let’s dive into answer the question, with a kind, more sustainable way of keeping photography alive when ADHD decision-making feels impossible.

How it feels to take a photo

Photography is a medium that supports us to connect with the world around us and distil the sense of what we are seeing. I think that taking photos is often where our nervous system feels most alive. The thrill of the profound moment when you click the shutter because the light hits just right, the sea does something unexpected, a bird moves through the frame and for a moment everything inside us clicks into place. If photography is your hobby, I can see how easy it is to hit the dreaded limit of your memory card capacity and suddenly the camera stays in the bag for weeks or months, not because the love has gone, but because the next step feels impossible.

This is something I hear often, especially from photographers who have recently discovered they are ADHD. The freeze is real. The shame can be loud. And the belief that everyone else finds this easy can quietly disconnect us from the very thing that regulates us most.

If this is familiar, we are not broken and we are not bad at photography. We are navigating a low-dopamine task after a high-dopamine experience, in a world that expects linear follow-through from a nervous system that does not work that way.

Why culling feels so hard for ADHD brains

Shooting is full of novelty, awe and sensory reward. Culling photography is none of those things. It asks us to slow down, make decisions, tolerate ambiguity and close loops, all of which are cognitively expensive for an ADHD nervous system.

Once the rush of being out there has passed and life pulls us back into emails, logistics and responsibilities, returning to a folder of photography can feel emotionally flat or even heavy. The task does not offer enough dopamine to get started, so we avoid it. Avoidance then turns into a block and eventually into not shooting at all.

Naming this matters. This is not a discipline issue. It is a nervous system mismatch.

Because, let’s be honest, there ain’t no dopamine in the delete.

Reframing the task: we are not deleting, we are mining for magick

One of the most helpful ADHD-aware shifts I have made in my own photography practice is this. I do not sit down to delete images, I sit down to find the ones that are the keepers.

I rate the images I want to keep and edit those in Lightroom. Everything else can stay untouched for now.

When I am on the road, especially after a sunset, a storm or an unexpected encounter with nature, my whole being is still vibing with that cellular level fizz that the moment gifted. That is the moment I lean into. I quickly scan through and flag or rate the images that carry the feeling of that moment. I do not overthink it, I am looking for the ones that make my heart jump, the goosebumps rush. Those liminal fleeting moments that felt so unreal, I have to see them in still frames to believe it.

This is not admin. This is attunement.

How to do this in a low-pressure, ADHD-aware way

These are not rules. They are suggestions for workarounds in this situation. Take what helps and leave the rest. I’m very conscious some folk may not have access to a computer or device to back images up onto and so I am going to look at ways to do this in camera.

Go mining for magick

Most cameras allow star ratings or flags. This turns culling into pattern recognition rather than decision-making. One pass only. If an image gets a clear yes in your body, mark it. If not, move on.

Nobody wants a maybe

Maybe is an open loop and open loops are exhausting for ADHDers. If it is not a hard yes, it does not get rated. This does not mean it is gone forever. It just means it is not asking for your energy today.

Time-box the task

Five minutes is enough. Set a timer and stop when it ends, even if you are mid-folder. Stopping before overwhelm builds is what makes it possible to come back later.

Delete the rejects in between the rated keepers

Set another timer to go through and delete the images in between the ones you’ve rated. This way you can clearly see them and you don’t have to think about deleting because you’ve rated your favourites. And if you’re feeling good, set another block of time and continue to repeat this. Break up each block with a bit of movement, or something you know will help regulate you.

Streamline the delete

If the ideas above feels a lot, consider whizzing through your photography and deleting the very clear rejects. The misfires, the out of focus, the over or under exposed. They’re very easy to see and pick out to free up space to keep shooting without forcing deeper decisions.

Consider shooting with a smaller file size

To get over not being able to justify buying a new memory card, as a short term work around and if your camera allows it, consider temporarily shooting smaller file sizes. JPEG instead of RAW, or turning off RAW plus JPEG. Or change the size of JPEG you’re shooting. Yes you’re going to have smaller files, but that to me feels like a win if it means you’re able to do something that totally fills your heart with joy.

A practical way forward when your memory card is full

If you have access to another device like a phone, tablet or computer then consider backing your favourite images up and formatting the memory card. The aim is not to perfectly organise everything. The aim is to free yourself to shoot again.

Think of this as creating a simple exit route, not a long-term system.

Step 1: mine for magick, don’t delete

Go through the images on your camera and only do one thing:

• Rate or flag the images you love
• Trust your first instinct
• No “maybe” pile

Remember, you are not deciding what to delete. You are identifying what matters. Everything else can stay untouched for now.

Step 2: use another device you already own

If you have access to any of the following, you can use them as a bridge:

• Smartphone
• Tablet
• Computer or laptop

Most cameras can connect via cable, SD card reader or Wi-Fi. You only need enough connection to move your favourites, not the entire card.

Step 3: if your camera has Wi-Fi, transfer to your phone

Many modern cameras allow wireless transfer to a phone or tablet.

A simple approach:

• Connect your camera to your phone using the camera’s app
• Transfer only the images you rated or flagged
• Don’t worry about speed or perfection

This turns culling into a short, focused task instead of an all-or-nothing job.

Step 4: back up your favourites offsite

Once your favourite images are on your phone, tablet or computer, back them up somewhere external.

Two easy, no-cost options at the time of writing:

• Google Photos offers up to 15GB of free storage
• Flickr allows up to 1,000 photos stored at any size

This means your best images are now stored off the camera.

Step 5: format the memory card and start fresh

Once your favourites are backed up elsewhere:

• Format the memory card in your camera
• Start again with a clean slate
• If you can muster the ADHD executive function and hijack the dopamine high after a photography shoot, start favourites as soon as you come home from taking photos and repeating the above process so you format the memory card every time you shoot rather than it building into a massive task.

When it comes to photography, this is often easier for an ADHD brain than deleting hundreds of images one by one. One decisive action. No loose ends.

Why this works for ADHD brains

• You avoid low-dopamine deletion tasks
• You reduce decision fatigue
• You close the loop in one clear move
• You get back to shooting faster

You’re not losing images. You’re liberating the ones that matter and letting the rest go without prolonged negotiation.

If it helps to reframe it: the memory card is not an archive. It’s a temporary holding place. Your job is not to keep everything, but to notice what wants to stay.

Why this is about care, not productivity

There is grief bound up in deleting images for many of us. Photos are not just files, they are moments, sensations, proof that we were there and that we saw something real. For neurodivergent creatives especially, images can hold memory and identity in ways that are hard to articulate. I wrote a post about AuDHD and autism and how I sense the world and so for me this is a fully embodied and deep connection to my regulation and how I process what I’ve seen.

So we move gently. We prioritise relationship over efficiency. We choose processes that keep us shooting rather than ones that punish us for not being perfect.

For ADHD brains, when photography is our regulation, anything that disconnects us from it deserves to be questioned, not obeyed.

A gentle note on backups

If you’re able to, having more than one copy of your favourite images is always a good idea. This might be as simple as keeping them on your phone and in a cloud service, or on a tablet and a computer.

That said, this post is about removing the block that’s stopping you from picking up your camera. Perfect backup systems can come later. Right now, the priority is helping you reconnect with photography in a way that feels ADHD-aware, manageable and kind to your nervous system.

The golden framework of backups: 3–2–1

When time and finances allow, it is good to follow the simplest, most trusted framework for backing up which is called the 3–2–1 rule.

3 copies of your data

This means the original plus two backups. One copy is not a backup. If it only exists in one place, it is vulnerable.

2 different types of storage

For example:

• camera card + hard drive
• hard drive + cloud
• computer + external drive

Different formats protect against different failures.

1 copy off-site

This is the most important part. Off-site means not in the same physical location as the others. Fire, theft, flooding and accidents don’t respect drawers.

Off-site can be:

• cloud storage
• a drive kept at a friend or family member’s house
• a studio or second location

If your card is full and your camera has been silent

If the full card has stopped you from picking up your camera, start small. You do not need to solve the whole backlog. You just need to decide if you’re comfortable creating enough space for the next moment of awe.

Rate a handful of images. Free a little room. Let the creative flow return.

I hope my ADHD-aware photography advice helps to create some space and get you back out to those wild edges that nourish your soul.

Important acknowledgements

The suggestions in this post are based on a real ADHD question I was sent and are intended to make suggestions to help someone get unstuck, free up a full memory card and reconnect with photography.

They do not reflect the professional workflow I use in my business for backing up, archiving or delivering client work. This is about removing barriers to creativity, rather than introducing overwhelm of a robust professional systems.

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