Valhalla Island

The advent of digital cameras has created this strange phenomenon. The Onion sums it up well in their article - Evening Events Immediately Recapped With Digital Camera Slide Show:

DENVER—Family and friends attending a two-hour birthday dinner for 26-year-old Josh Kebbekus at The Cheesecake Factory yesterday concluded their meal by watching a slide show of themselves ordering drinks, talking, eating, and taking photos of one another.

The decision to take photos is a strange one. Do you just enjoy doing whatever you’re doing or do you constantly interrupt it to take photos so you can remember how much you were enjoying it. It becomes a problem when you’re taking so many photos that the memories become memories of taking photos. My friends are especially bad at this.

At any kind of gathering the majority will have cameras. A few hours worth of activity can result in a few hundred photos, all similar in nature. Every so often a subset of subset of people will be called up to group in front of a flash, arms around each other, huge grins on their faces. After each photo there’s the dreaded “let me see, let me see! DELETE IT!”.

I blame digital cameras. Back when it was all film people took photos with caution and chose their subjects carefully for fear of wasting expensive film. Unless you brought spare rolls each session was limited to 24 shots, a reasonable number, I think.

I also feel more candid shots should be taken. The forced nature of most photos is so unnatural. Candid shots are quick, they capture the moment accurately and only the most vain person will demand review and deletion. Slower is the only place I’ve seen some great natural portraits. For me it makes more sense to capture the things you see rather than exclusively capture the people you’re with.

Even when I take my camera places with intention of taking photos, it always slips my mind. I’m just too busy actually doing whatever I’m doing.