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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

#311

Post by jdsnape »

coldtea wrote: post #310
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…

> There must be a balance. Why? I mean, why we cannot just NOT take pictures, or taken them very very very rarely, like on our wedding, kids first steps, or something major like that? We managed to do without immediate access to photography for some millenia, and with very ocassional and rare use of it for the best part of the 20th century.

We did without it, sure, but I’m pretty sure people in ages past would have wanted to take photos just as we do now

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

#312

Post by Karrot_Kream »

stego-tech wrote: post #12
sivers wrote: post #5

I’d always wanted to go to Korea. I was so excited. I set out to explore and forgot my phone in the hotel. I walked around Seoul for twelve hours that day and experienced so many wonderful things. I remember them all vividly now, years later, but I have no photos of it. It was a relief to not document everything. I appreciated everything as a one-step process instead of a two-step process. I could just feel amazed, i…

As I prepare for my own round-the-world adventure in the year ahead, I’ve been finding myself spending more time musing on a packing list, than the destinations. The OCD wants to prepare for everything, to have anything it needs on hand and ready to go. It wants to pack my X-Pro 3 and a bevy of lenses, and a flash, and batteries, and my laptop to process it on when I get back to the hotel room, and a backup drive, an…

This thread is an amazing variety of stances on photography. Some people are convinced you need to leave all lenses at home to plug in and a child comment of yours talks about bringing the holy trinity zooms and a prime to get everything. This forum is a bit maddening in its lack of focus at times.

I've been bit by lens fomo a bit but never as much as this post and the child post seem to be and never enough that I've missed a shot I really, really regret. My "standard" load out is to bring my long 70-180 Tamron f2.8 and a 50 f1.8. If I know the trip will have little downtime I'll pack just the 50 or nothing at all but my smartphone. My smartphone is wider and can capture everything my 50 can't, though it is harder to get the shot I'm looking for with it due to the lack of control.

If I'm doing a photography trip, sure I'll bring my tripod, glass I need, flashes, and strobes. But if I'm just going with family of friends often enough the 50 or just my smartphone is fine.

I just shot a family member's college graduation with my 50 and the 70-180. I did get lucky in that the lighting was fantastic outdoors, but I still have no regrets, missed moments, or shots I couldn't do. A few moments I regretted not having my ND filters to help tone down highlights in the cloudy golden hour sky (or my tripod to grab an HDR shot), but it wasn't hard to mask and bring highlights down in post anyway.

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

#313

Post by selimthegrim »

ivape wrote: post #308
scrollop wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your idea for a story may be a glimpse of a memory: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-6-the-life-review/i... This podcast somewhat changed my life.

Interestingly enough, this concept of a life review is actually also described as a particular detail of Christianity. There is a very specific supernatural phenomena that is explained, where the spirit of God "convicts" you of your life (conviction by the Holy Spirit, this what Christians believe). I'm not pushing Christianity, I'm just saying there are multiple parallel ideas of what this thing could actually be th…

This kind of sounds like the aerial toll houses of Orthodoxy

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

#314

Post by haswell »

instagib wrote: post #305
haswell wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you’re supposed to be able to make an image of an apple appear in your brain by thinking about it? This is very similar to how I reacted when I started reading “When the Mind’s Eye is Blind” [0] one day. Up to that point (I think I was 31 at the time) I had always believed that when people talked about “visualizing” something, it was just a figure of speech. I didn’t realize people meant it literally . 30+ years of…

I suppose this is why the mind palace of memory is difficult for me to utilize. I have read that eskimos lost in the snow and ice have been able to have day hallucinations visually as well auditory. They see and hear birds which do not exist. A YouTuber simulated it with thick white paper taped to his head with white noise playing head phones after 15-30min, iirc. Another avenue to look into aside from hallucinogens…

My inability to do the mind palace thing is one of those things that suddenly made sense to me.

I've gone deep down a meditation rabbit hole since learning about all of this. No visual imagery yet, but I do see what I would have to describe as a non-specific shimmering/morphing "wave" that comes and goes. Nothing that I could describe as an image of something, but visual phenomena nonetheless.

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

#315

Post by throwawaybob420 »

coldtea wrote: post #310
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…

> There must be a balance. Why? I mean, why we cannot just NOT take pictures, or taken them very very very rarely, like on our wedding, kids first steps, or something major like that? We managed to do without immediate access to photography for some millenia, and with very ocassional and rare use of it for the best part of the 20th century.

Such an odd thing to say. You really think people 500 years ago didn’t yearn to capture moments?

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

#316

Post by BrenBarn »

card_zero wrote: post #203
riffraff wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 un…

I love that kind of thing too. I lean towards capturing that partly through photos but also through saving occasional pieces of paper or other physical artifacts. Like when I travel, I'll save receipts, restaurant menus, little brochures from museums, etc. At home, although I can't save everything (my apartment is already cluttered enough!), I'll hang onto occasional things like concert programs, election mailers, etc., just because I find they do a pretty good job of encapsulating something about the time they were in. It saddens me in a way that many of those things are being phased in favor of digital alternatives, because the physical objects have a certain intrinsic coherence that files lack.

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

#317

Post by strogonoff »

hellcow wrote: post #253
strogonoff wrote: post #225

That by using and/or carrying a camera you stop being present in the moment, and that it is somehow mutually exclusive with making memories, is somewhat of a mischaracterisation. If you are serious about photography with existing light, the act of using the camera and even merely carrying it forces you to, for the lack of better description, see things as they are. It opens your eyes, quiets your chattering brain, st…

Absolutely. To add to this, the fact the author doesn’t take photos in their home town is a surprise as well. You understand where you live better than visitors. As a photographer you know what’s interesting about a place. You see things that everyone else walks past and doesn’t notice. While everyone else walks away with generic tourist shots of Chapel Hill, you can capture snapshots of daily life over years that re…

For me so far it is more difficult to snap into appreciation of surroundings in a place where I have lived for a while[0], but even still it is markedly easier to do while carrying a camera and mentally prepared to use it.

[0] Maybe I haven’t found the right place yet, who knows.

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

#318

Post by throwawaybob420 »

LeafItAlone wrote: post #58
TrexArms wrote: post #27

I picked up photography for a bit and definitely lived in the lens for about 2 years. What broke me out of it, I got the idea of a sunrise shot. I stayed up all night, left home about 2am. I hiked through the woods to find 150+ people already there with the same idea. I didn't know it until I asked, but there was a parking lot 100 yards from where I was at. I looked around just really confused, waited for the perfect…

I’m confused. What about that experience made you stop taking pictures?

Honestly such a random story

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

#319

Post by LeratoAustini »

rickdeckard wrote: post #174
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…

Similar for me, I started looking for a small compact camera I can pull out, roughly aim at a scene and take plenty of pictures for later, with minimal disruption of the moment (I especially don't want to introduce a Smartphone to everything, I want people to continue in that moment without the impulse to pose for a picture). After searching alot, I found the long-discontinued DxO-One being a gem. A really nice blend…

I love hearing about stuff like this. Sounds like a fun device, weird niche and interesting to know there's some hackability. I appreciate your writing up your findings on the github too, thanks!

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

#320

Post by comradesmith »

zkmon wrote: post #223

My village people in the 1960's or 70's hated to be photographed. Heck, they hated even being called by their own name (instead of family name or by relation or by their title etc). Photography is kind of evil. It won't let people to fade away from memories. It's like a plastic that never decomposes. Not only that, it misrepresents people, because people don't remain in same pose, mood or appearance forever. It attac…

What’s worse, being forgotten long after you die, or forgetting yourself during your own lifetime?
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