Help with my photo file

[proud2BlibKansan]

My Mac is full. I have several thousand pictures and I need to get them off of my computer. I backed up everything on an external hard drive and now I am trying to burn my pics onto CDs. I keep getting a message that I don't have enough space to burn a CD. I tried deleting pictures but they don't go into the trash so I know they are still on my computer somewhere.

I tried dragging my photos one at a time and in groups to the trash but that doesn't work either.

Anyone know how I get these pictures off my computer? I am getting pretty frustrated with it and feel really stupid.

Thanks.