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On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

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Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#201

Post by 05 »

memhole wrote: post #46
andrehacker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was young and easily swayed, I took life advice from a well-known Dutch comedian (Youp van 't Hek) who loved to mock tourists taking those cringe “holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa” photos. The message was clear: tourist photos were tacky, and besides, you could always find a better photo in the gift shop anyway. So for years, I smugly avoided taking photos—too cool for clichés. It only hit me much later th…

On a backpacking trip, a guy and I were hiking together for a moment. I was snapping photos of the landscape and he started to chastise me for it. He made the same point. It’s about the people you’re with. Eventually, all the photos blur together. He’s not wrong. I’ve got tons of pictures of the outdoors. Not that they aren’t beautiful. Pressed, I mostly couldn’t tell one from the other.

We're getting closer to effortless vlogging with automatic follow-me drones, so you don't need to choose between shooting and actually experiencing things as much as you used to.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#202

Post by hilbert42 »

submeta wrote: post #162

When you get older, you realize how memories fade, how they disappear, and that’s when you wish you had taken more pictures. I am not talking about young folks shooting photos for the sake of getting likes. I am talking about precious moments, a picture here, a picture there. They will help trigger lost memories. For what is our identity if not a string of recollections we have?

Right, each to his own. And you don't have to be old to not notice important items in a scene. Also I'd venture very few people would be able to recall much of the detail in any scene after even a few years. Perhaps those few with photographic memories could but the vast majority would not.

I take photos often and I've many going back quite a few decades, and many of them I cannot remember taking let alone remember the fine details.

Even when I inspect a photograph to see whether it's worth scanning I'll still miss certain details. I've noticed repeatedly that I only become aware of them when inspecting the scanned photo in Photoshop or such to remove spots, scratches, etc. It's only after close inspection that may take quite some time that I become aware of these features.

For me, photos are an essential reminder of things past. That said, I've noticed some people really aren't that interested in photos, and what's more I've often encountered them. On many an ocassion after I've dug out old photos and slides for scanning I've offered copies to people who were in say original group shots and they've not been very interested. On the other hand, others are very eager for copies and can't wait to receive them.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#203

Post by card_zero »

riffraff wrote: post #112
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend who refuses to take pictures without people in them. It seemed dumb at first but after several years of pictures piling up I can see he had a pretty good point.

This is old advice, I remember it being framed as "if I wanted a picture of a monument I'd buy a postcard", and postcards basically no longer exist. It made some sense to take pictures of panoramas or art when you could show something to people that could not see it otherwise, but in this era it makes no sense (unless you enjoy photography as a hobby). A goofy picture of you kissing some old bronze statue? Dumb, but…

Turns out that the things I wish I'd taken photos of were: bookshelves (with titles visible), crappy old computers and things on the screen, posters I used to have on the wall, my everyday clothes, streets with parked cars, the inside of an art supply store.

These are not achievements, or unusual places, or humans. The things I'd like to see are stores of subtle cultural information than gets lost because it seems unimportant, and then a couple of decades later I want to look at all the details of it again but I can't. What was that car I used to be slightly interested by every time I walked past it? What range of items used to be for sale? What books did I have? What was actually on that poster that got torn and thrown out and now it's impossible to find another? Instead of answers, I have holiday snaps and pictures of humans.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#204

Post by noufalibrahim »

submeta wrote: post #162

When you get older, you realize how memories fade, how they disappear, and that’s when you wish you had taken more pictures. I am not talking about young folks shooting photos for the sake of getting likes. I am talking about precious moments, a picture here, a picture there. They will help trigger lost memories. For what is our identity if not a string of recollections we have?

As I've grown older, my main regret is not having spent time with people i wanted to. Photographs have never come up. Perhaps it's because I've always disliked it and looked down on people who killed moments by trying to immortalize them.

The photos at best act as a trigger to remember but in a very limited way.

And being a photographer i think really does alter your way of looking at things imo for the worse.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#205

Post by twelvedogs »

meh, i can't remember shit about my kid's births except for a couple of blurred memories, what with the lack of sleep and stress

this dude probably has better memories of his than i do.

take photos, make sure to take them and write what was happening but i guess don't make them the point of the experience like this dude is

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#206

Post by prmoustache »

dingaling wrote: post #172
billfruit wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pictures are one way, there are other ways too like writing a journal. Camera after all is a recent invention.

Few people have the time to sit and write a journal each day. I tried and it became a burden, a dread before bed time. Sleep won out. Journals can also be electively subjective. Yes, a photo can be framed or posed, but it's harder to edit awkward truths out of a photo rather than omitting them from a journal.

It is not about having the time but prioritizing this time over something else.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#207

Post by tenthirtyam »

planck_tonne wrote: post #11

There must be a balance. Recently I met some people that were constantly filming and taking pictures of everything. It was ridiculous IMO, for the same reasons OP mentions. This is not new. For me, it began with the rise of the smartphone. So I made it a point not to waste my time photographing things. 10 years later, I regret having essentially no pictures of anything. In particular, no "good" or "frameable" picture…

For me the key is to use an actual (digital) camera to take photos, not a smartphone.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#208

Post by ajsnigrutin »

submeta wrote: post #162

When you get older, you realize how memories fade, how they disappear, and that’s when you wish you had taken more pictures. I am not talking about young folks shooting photos for the sake of getting likes. I am talking about precious moments, a picture here, a picture there. They will help trigger lost memories. For what is our identity if not a string of recollections we have?

It's the internet... people always only talk about the extremes. Look at concerts for example, you have two extremes:

1) don't take photos/videos at all, enjoy the concert!

2) hold your phone above your head for the whole concert and record and instagram everything, every song, every word said between songs, everything.

Both options suck, and most discussons just use the extremes like those above.

There is always a middle ground, where you take a few photos, maybe a short video, and as you said, in a few years, you'll be scrolling down your gallery and suddenly remember that (looking at metadata) on june 7th 2019 you were at a concert of ThatRandomBand, and it'll be a nice memory to keep and remember. Noone will watch an hour of video with distorted audio, and you'll forget a bunch of stuff not saved anywhere, but a photo here and there is always a nice thing to have.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#209

Post by l33tman »

The point of the Narrative Clip (https://getnarrative.com) was to let people both live in the moment AND capture it. It was launched at the height of the life-logger/wearable conjunction 10 years ago, but it's still an interesting idea and the thought of having a more thorough "log" of your life might get more and more relevant the closer we get to vivid AI-recreations and even brain augmentation.

Some customers also just had bad memory and loved sort of re-living their day every evening which made memories store more efficiently in the brain.

There are social "contracts" that the users need to consider when using stuff like this though, as you do take photos of those around you or who you interact with..

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#210

Post by zirgs »

marticode wrote: post #84
andrehacker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was young and easily swayed, I took life advice from a well-known Dutch comedian (Youp van 't Hek) who loved to mock tourists taking those cringe “holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa” photos. The message was clear: tourist photos were tacky, and besides, you could always find a better photo in the gift shop anyway. So for years, I smugly avoided taking photos—too cool for clichés. It only hit me much later th…

I had and followed that advice but in a slightly different delivery: "take photos of peoples, not things".

We are no longer in the film era. You won't run out of storage. So I take pictures of both.
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