Digital Doom
Advances in digital photography and electronic storage spell a certain kind of doom, the vacation slide show doom.
The old man took somewhere around 250 digital photographs during is tour of Ireland. These have all been uploaded to his yahoo family photo album. This album has been shared with family and friends and for all of those who don't check their email he has burned the lot onto a DVD that can be played in most modern DVD players.
Today he came back from the pharmacy with an additional two hundred film photographs he had developed. He has not forsaken the film camera as the digital still doesn't give the quality of picture that one gets from film.
When the old man gets a free moment he will scan every last photo and upload them to a yahoo family photo album. This will bring us to a grand total of 450 digital images taking up space and clogging up the internet.
Here is something that he and the world should know : No one needs or wants to see your vacation slide show. Stop the madness.
I understand the need and desire to capture every moment on film, so that even when your memories fade you have this personal history ready and waiting to be reintroduced to your mind. What was Ireland like? Just look at these four hundred and fifty pictures in chronological order and you can almost relive the tour in your mind.
The rest of us look at the pictures differently.
Ah an unidentified green cliff. Mom sitting here. Mom sitting there. Another cliff. Lots of green. A small town. Some murals, subject uknown, mom again with her sister and friend. green cliff. more cliffs. houses. park. statute. cliff. green. castle. tower. cliff. tower. tower. castle. brokendown castle. picture of my niece from three weeks before their vacation. castle. cliff. cliff. castle on a cliff. tower. cliff.
One could sit through the hours and hours of explanation (as each cliff must be named and each castle described) or one could say you know I left a rather nice book sitting on my bed and I'd rather get back too it if y'all don't mind.
When taking pictures in that massive quantity, without pause to consider lighting and angle, the artistry goes out of the practice and leaves a personal travel log that can even be confusing to one's self if the images aren't arranged in the proper order.
Pleas don't be a part of the problem. Use this rule of thumb. If it is more than a single roll of film, odds are that better than even that no one is going to take the time to browse through your entire album. Share only a few images at a time or don't share them at all.
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The old man took somewhere around 250 digital photographs during is tour of Ireland. These have all been uploaded to his yahoo family photo album. This album has been shared with family and friends and for all of those who don't check their email he has burned the lot onto a DVD that can be played in most modern DVD players.
Today he came back from the pharmacy with an additional two hundred film photographs he had developed. He has not forsaken the film camera as the digital still doesn't give the quality of picture that one gets from film.
When the old man gets a free moment he will scan every last photo and upload them to a yahoo family photo album. This will bring us to a grand total of 450 digital images taking up space and clogging up the internet.
Here is something that he and the world should know : No one needs or wants to see your vacation slide show. Stop the madness.
I understand the need and desire to capture every moment on film, so that even when your memories fade you have this personal history ready and waiting to be reintroduced to your mind. What was Ireland like? Just look at these four hundred and fifty pictures in chronological order and you can almost relive the tour in your mind.
The rest of us look at the pictures differently.
Ah an unidentified green cliff. Mom sitting here. Mom sitting there. Another cliff. Lots of green. A small town. Some murals, subject uknown, mom again with her sister and friend. green cliff. more cliffs. houses. park. statute. cliff. green. castle. tower. cliff. tower. tower. castle. brokendown castle. picture of my niece from three weeks before their vacation. castle. cliff. cliff. castle on a cliff. tower. cliff.
One could sit through the hours and hours of explanation (as each cliff must be named and each castle described) or one could say you know I left a rather nice book sitting on my bed and I'd rather get back too it if y'all don't mind.
When taking pictures in that massive quantity, without pause to consider lighting and angle, the artistry goes out of the practice and leaves a personal travel log that can even be confusing to one's self if the images aren't arranged in the proper order.
Pleas don't be a part of the problem. Use this rule of thumb. If it is more than a single roll of film, odds are that better than even that no one is going to take the time to browse through your entire album. Share only a few images at a time or don't share them at all.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 4:02 PM
2 Comments:
My co-worker went to Germany for a long weekend, was in only one city and came back with six rolls of film. I made the mistake of telling her I'd like to see them. She rolled her chair into my cubicle and went through EVERY SINGLE ONE. I don't think six rolls is as many as 450, but at least the people in those pictures are your parents and not complete strangers.
That was a bad day. And I think about two rolls of film in she realized that it was just too much, but once you start, it is too awkward to be like, "You know, I'm boring you. I'll just leave now."
while the digital camera allows me to take at least 12 good pictures out of the 150 it holds, i never thought that any one would actually keep all of the crappy ones---since i am lousy at taking pictures, i love that at least a few of my many, many pictures will be worthy of showing off/becoming keepsake memory thingys.....the other ones--well let's just say the evidence is deleted. i'm rambling.
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