Thoughts On Photography

I'm bored in class.  It's true.  I admit that I'm not paying one bit of attention.  Will this come back to bite me in the butt?  Obviously. 

I tried to think of something funny to draw, but my creativity is gone.  I tried to think of something not so funny to draw, but I'm too lazy to try to make something that's actually good.  Thus, I started Stumbling.  I came across a website full of old black and white pictures of people and things on city streets.  Then I got to thinking.  Well I've thought this before, but this time I thought that I would put what I was thinking on Merp so that you can think about it...because I'm bored...in class...not paying attention...

So here's what I think:

While digital cameras are great and all (very easy to use, efficient, less expensive than having pictures developed), I feel that they take away from what's so special about photos.  Pictures used to be treasured and unique because you were lucky enough to catch that one moment that vanished in a millisecond.  Now you can just put your camera on the action setting and get a sequence of a dozen pictures of the one event.  You can store thousands of pictures on your computer and flip through them and delete them anytime you want. It's just not as special when you have a hundred pictures of one evening.  Personally, I prefer the old photo album or shoebox full of one of a kind pictures that you treasure and take special care of.  I like looking through each and every one, taking my time to go through them and reminisce. I especially love old yellowed photos of my parents and grandparents, like the one that Mom says is a picture of my grade school aged grandma with her pet chicken. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm just a snap-happy as anyone.  Just check out my Facebook page and you'll find more pictures of me and my friends from the same night out at a bar than you'd ever care to see.  So many that you'll just fly through them because they're all pretty much the same as the last.  But it's at least nice when I pick out just a couple pictures to actually print out and save.  Many of you probably don't agree with me, but then, I've always tended toward excessive nostalgia.