Some of the most valued things in my life are the photos I’ve taken and printed as they remind me of where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with.
It’s one thing to miss a moment, like the author of this article did, because you’re fiddling with a camera but it’s also a thing to capture a moment and have it forever. How many times have you shown someone a photo and they say with amazement and excitement “No way! I’d almost forgotten got about that!” - many for me.
The article doesn't really say anything about the "cultivating memories" part. I find that living in the moment, plus writing down shortly after is the best way for me to remember things with high fidelity.
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, instead of feel amazed and hold up my camera to record it. Besides, how often do I look at those photos later, anyway? I find it more useful to refer to my journal of how I felt, instead of what I saw.
A few times, GPS could have helped, but because I didn’t have it, I had to go ask strangers for directions. Getting lost led me down some great little back roads I never would have found if I was following the map.
So now I intentionally travel without a phone.
I feel free and untethered. A break from connection.
Where you are is partially defined by where you are not. When you’re somewhere, you’re not somewhere else. But when you use your phone, you’re everywhere. You keep in touch with friends. You hear what’s going on at home. You see the screen exactly as you do anywhere else.
It’s wonderful to be cut off from everywhere else — to be more fully only there.
And it’s so nice to not know the time or where I am. Clocks and maps are useful inventions, but I see a moment better without them.
I appreciate a moment more when I know I’ll never see it again. I remember that day in Seoul better than I remember most photo-filled travels.
I think a large part of taking photos and recording things for a lot of people is that they like to journal and record things, in part, for future generations to have.
Like it's great you had those amazing experiences, but in a sense it's as if they're also going to die with you as well (assuming you even have children).
Of course, nothing wrong with what you're describing. I definitely can feel there's value in how you approach it, and I often fantasise about spending an entire year without technology at all.
Getting lost is important in life. As you say, you'll discover more and experience more.
How you remember something has more value than how it was. Over time it will morph in to the truth you experienced. In the same way a painter captures what they see not what is in front of them.
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, and-
And then I remember that this may well be the only time in my life that I will see these places, meet these people, and try these things. That the more I bring with me, the less mental room I have to savor, enjoy, and process the world around me in those precious moments.
I’m going to bring either my X100F, or splurge on a GFX100RF. That’ll be it. No flashes, no tripods, no laptops, no international high-speed data plan. Just me, a point-and-shoot, and unlimited EDGE data for the odd GPS route.
I want to use my photographs to remind me of times gone by, traveling alone, when my memory is foggy or old age has caught up with me. I don’t want to be in photographer mode, I want to be in-the-moment mode.
Agreed. I went on a work trip to the islands off of Phuket, and several days in the UAE.
I loaded up hard. R5, the "holy trinity" (15-35/2.8, 28-70/2, 70-200/2.8), 100-500, and an 85/1.2. I used two lenses, mostly one (the 28-70).
I am going on a trip, two weeks in Maui. And I'm going to take an X100VI, for most days, and mirrorless with 2 lenses for 2 or 3 of the days tops. I have an SSD with a CF/SD reader, and both cameras I will have have USB-C charging so I want to enjoy, but not have the experience be secondary to photography.
That packing list is honestly why I’m seriously considering the GFX100RF while I have a windfall available. That 100MP sensor allows so many possible shots via cropping, that additional lenses aren’t needed. The only downside is the lack of that sweet, sweet DoF for portraits, but seeing as how every one of my friends loathes being photographed, that doesn’t feel like a downside.
My wife and I did this last year and it was an incredible experience. A year ago today we were driving up to Cape Tribulation in Australia. Along the way, on a small hike on a boardwalk through the woods, we were startled by a cassowary crossing our path less than 20 feet from us!
We did manage to pull out our phones and grab a video. A year later, I’m so glad we did — even more fun than seeing the cassowary step across the trail is hearing our voices excitedly whisper to each other about how big and close it was.
I’m jealous of your trip. Not a day goes by that I don’t reminisce fondly on ours. And I’m sure you’ll strike the right balance between being a photographer and being in the moment :)
Have you gone on trips before or is this like your first real trip too?
Sounding so confused like this makes it seem like you don't travel much? If you like taking pictures take them, if you don't then don't. I wouldn't over think this.
If you really haven't traveled much maybe take a trip and see how you feel about it
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.
> I remember them all vividly now, years later, but I have no photos of it.
That's wonderful for you, but my brain doesn't work that way. My memories tend to get very fuzzy over time, and photos are a very powerful aid for me in recall. My photos of a trip with my wife to France last summer are already reminding me of details I've forgotten. I just took a trip to Japan last month, and I expect, before too long, that the same will be true of the photos I took there.
> It’s wonderful to be cut off from everywhere else — to be more fully only there.
You can take photos and still fully be there. There are many many points on the spectrum between not having a camera at all, and viewing the world through your phone's screen because you are taking photos or video of nearly everything.
> But when you use your phone, you’re everywhere. You keep in touch with friends. You hear what’s going on at home. You see the screen exactly as you do anywhere else.
It's a shame that so many people have such a bad relationship with their tech that they can't put it away. I absolutely do use my phone for mapping and navigation and other useful tasks while I'm traveling, but I tend to put it on do-not-disturb mode, and ignore it much more than I do at home. I still wander around, without a particular destination in mind, and get "lost" often enough to spontaneously run into interesting things. Sure, I'm not fully disconnected, but I don't see that as a negative.
I'd rather travel with you, than those who insist on always carrying a camera.
Everyone sees and feels the world quite differently without a camera. With one, part of you is preoccupied and looking for images, not with being in the place and feeling the experience.
I might loose out in the pictures-of-my-trip competition, and in the I've-"done"-that-place conversation. But I don't want to be the person who "did" somewhere. I want to be the person who got to know it a bit, who lived it, who met the locals, and who remembers the place and the feelings.
That’s a romantic idea but in reality without a phone it gets hard very quickly if you have to fill out some custom forms, go to restaurants that don’t take cash (in some parts of the world very common) or even have to get public traffic tickets.
I rarely take pictures for memories, but rather to create art to share. If I think the photograph will be a work of art, then I'll go through the effort to capture it. If not, I just don't bother and focus on the experience.
Or you can live in one of the infinite states between those two extremes, and find a balance that works for you, rather than believing that only absolutism can find you the right way to live.
I struggle to relate to this. I have aphantasia, which means I can’t see anything in my mind’s eye.
This is most painful when I try to “imagine” my wife’s face, my family, friends, favorite parts of nature, etc, but am left with nothing.
For me, this means that I struggle to remember things from my past beyond major life events. Even major events can be fuzzy for me.
As a result, I’ve always tried to snap quick pictures of what I’m doing, even if it means I have to “step away” from enjoying the moment for a brief second.
A few months ago, I loaded my 30k+ pics (across ~10 yrs) stored on a hard drive into an Immich instance. I can now easily look at those pictures and remember my past in a way that I simply couldn’t beforehand.
This has been an unbelievable improvement in QoL through an improved self-identity, remembrance of my past, and reconnection with memories of lost loved ones.
I can agree with the author on the disruptive nature of picture taking. But for me, none of what I listed above would be possible without capturing my memories in moderation and with pointed intent.
I'm in much the same boat. While I can recall minute details about major events from long in my past, I cannot "see" them in my head like other people apparently can. Instead I feel like my brain is a police sketch artist with my memory providing a list of details. With the advent of smart phones, I've been able to non-disruptively capture tens of thousands of visual memories I might not otherwise have. And with modern photo management software it's been great to revisit the memories from time to time without having to painstakingly organize them.
Ha,this could have been written by me as well. Aphantasia is so weird to try to describe to people.
I've never been great about taking photos, but my wife always remembers. Recently spent some time consolidating all of the to Immich and being able to see the "memories" every day is incredible.
When I explain it to people, I always ask them to close their eyes and picture an apple on a table. I then ask them what color the apple is. Everyone I’ve ever done this with (except a sibling) answers a color.
I then say, “to me, there is no color, no apple, no table, no outline; nothing.” Always a leads to fun discussion :)
> 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 situations suddenly clicked and it was like a bomb of realization went off in my brain.
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 as referenced in the link could be deep meditation.
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.
I'm quite certain I've got aphantasia as well, but despite that I have quite vivid memories.
Except I don't really visualize what was there, but I "feel" them. It's not just a grocery list of elements for a scene, rather I have a strong sensation of being in the moment.
Both my mom and my sister has multiple times expressed surprise at my recall.
On the other hand, old pictures doesn't really do that much for me. Sure it's fun to watch them, and maybe they jog some memories, but I don't feel I need them.
That said, I'm open to future me regretting not taking pictures, so when on vacation or similar I do try to take some pictures.
That’s neat that you used the word “feel”… it’s the exact word I use when I try to describe my experience.
For example, I have a great spatial memory, which is obviously not due to my ability to “see” things in my mind. Instead, when asked how I can remember spatial things (e.g., “which way did we come from on our hike?”), all I can say is that I simply “feel” the path.
If you’re curious, this is because different parts of our brain are responsible for visual spatial processing vs. visual object processing. The dorsal visual pathway is responsible for spatial processing, and the ventral visual pathway is responsible for object processing, like faces. This is all “bottom up” visual processing.
Bottom up visual processing is independent from internal cognitive activation of these pathways, which can arise from frontoparietal engagement of the same “endpoints” as the dorsal/central visual pathways. This is “top down” processing.
My ability to “feel a spatial cognitive map without images” argues that there are some miswirings between my frontoparietal cortex and my temporal cortex. This is why I can still recognize faces, objects, etc., but can’t see them in my mind.
Visual imagery during dreaming adds an entire other layer onto the topic :)
Here are some good reviews and articles on the topic:
I don't have aphantasia at all (I can recall things visually quite well) but that doesn't mean I have perfect recall of all moments. I love taking photos of things, and to pore over those photos every decade or so. The photos are a reminder of the times, the people, and memories which I may otherwise forget unless jogged periodically.
I’ve also learned over the years that photography is actually a gateway to being present for me. I spent the first 30+ years of my life in my head. Photography helps me pay attention to my surroundings, and is a kind of mindfulness practice in many ways.
When I go back and look at old images, it always surprises me how much I’ve forgotten.
I do think it can be taken too far, but at least for me, it’s been an invaluable tool for all of the reasons you mentioned.
Thanks for sharing. It’s very nice to hear from others with similar experiences. I agree about the mindfulness component too.
I’m curious how you capture pics. I use my iPhone. Over the past few years, I’ve also started taking short videos, as the iPhone video processing is just unbelievably good. The videos capture nice audio context, and really help me remember the “being” of the memory. iPhone pics are good too, but of course the sensor size is the main limitation. I have been thinking about looking for a dedicated small digital camera.
I picked up an Olympus OM-D E-M5 III (weather sealed) during the pandemic and started going on photo walks. Fell in love with it and have taken it all over the US on road trips and hikes. I’ve since purchased other cameras and have gone pretty deep down the photography rabbit hole. Recently I’ve been eyeing a used Panasonic GX85 to pair with my existing smaller lenses like the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 because it’s even smaller than the Olympus.
But I still use my iPhone for some things - especially video.
There are some great compact micro four thirds cameras on the market that are better than a phone but still small enough to carry regularly. The “Micro Four Nerds” YouTube channel is a great resource if you’re curious. She covers many of the really compact every day carry cameras on the market and best lenses for various scenarios.
MFT cameras are a great gateway into the hobby, and some of the more vintage looking bodies just inspire me to take them everywhere and take photos.
Highly recommend looking at used gear on sites like mpb.com or keh.com. Can usually find lightly used equipment for significantly less than retail pricing.
As a fellow aphantasiac, I'd like to offer a contrasting view. I never felt the need to take a picture of an event in order to remember it in the future. Anything important, I can remember just fine, and the rest is naturally discarded. Aphantasia isn't a cognitive impairment, so chances are you'd struggle to remember events even without it.
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" pictures (blurry pictures from funny angles don't count...). Especially from important moments. Yes, I was there living the moment. But with a picture, I could relive it for a bit.
It's not hard to find the balance, though, I guess. You don't have to constantly be filming everything. Maybe just get the group together for one picture at the end of the event and that's it. Good enough.
That's what'll I try from now on at least. Report back in 10 years...
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 that I wasn’t missing out on better shots of monuments… I was missing pictures of the people I was with. Family and friends looking younger, sometimes happier, and—how shall I put it—sometimes still alive.
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.
I kind of do agree about photos of landscapes. There's nothing that really ties me to those photos. Tend to stick to photographing people and particularly interesting things rather than just a good view of some hills.
He's not wrong...unless you're planning to use that landscape photo in a way that will give you some sort of benefit in the future (emotional, financial, etc.).
It's easy (an often correct) to assume that most such photos will never be seen again, or maybe scrolled by quickly at best, but the fact is one doesn't know the motivation of the photographer, nor how they might change their motivation in the future to actually make use of that photo.
One of my main reason for using Strava* is for keeping context with my travel photos.
Even if it's just walks around a city center, I have a thing for photographing street art, and uploading the different photos to my walks and it places them at their locations on the recorded path/map of the walk (or hike) to be revisited/replayed when feeling nostalgic.
It also helps to be more discerning about what photos to keep (do I really need another wide landscape shot?) But once the "worthy" photos of my walk/hike are added, I remove the others from my phone and make the recorded activity private for me to enjoy. The context + notes with the photos in one place makes it all mean so much more when I revisit them. I completely ignore all social bits of the app, but this might appeal to some since you can share/fork an activity to the accounts of people that where with you.
*I don't work for them, but been using it over a decade now
Tangentially related: on each trip I make, I try my best to get a run in on Strava during which I explore a city or area with one or two pictures I make _during_ the run.
They're my favorite memories. NY's Central Park, London's Hyde Park, Norway's fjords, Barcelona's beaches... The best part is that these feel like very tangible memories and take zero physical space to store!
Completely disagree; photographs are just another kind of symbol, whether they be with others or not. I rarely travel with other people, and I despise having my own picture taken. All my photographs are of landscapes or objects; they're not terribly pretty but they do have meaning to me.
There one of of a non descript mountain turn with a small gravel pullout. There's a million prettier pictures but that one means the most meaning to me.
I almost died there; crashed on my motorcycle. Took the turn just a little too fast, panicked and just went over the edge trying desperately to stop. I don't remember much of the crash itself; just green, brown, and blue. Just that when I finally managed to get myself together, my leg crushed under the bike on on dirt that felt like concrete. No chance of pushing the bike off. No chance of digging or wriggling free. No chance of being seen from the road. My only hope was 911.
Except... I couldn't bring myself to call. There was nothing technically stopping me; good signal strength, modern phone with enhanced positional reporting. Just one little button press and help would be on the way. But why?
Why should I call for help?
Why did I want to keep living?
Why do I deserve to live?
Damned questions that I had been asking myself nearly every day for almost 26 years of my life by then. And here, finally at that mountain road I couldn't run from it any more. But it was also the first real chance I had to put myself to the test; to know myself one way or the other. So I turned my phone off. And left my mortality to the hands of fate.
For 7 hours I just lay there, nothing else to do but watch sun and cloud drift in the sky with waiting for an end. And yet there was a stillness there that I had never experienced before in my life. No more voices demanding that I meet their expectations. No more fear. No more uncertainty. Just a blessed silence with a light at the end of the road that I had no seen in a long time.
It seemed almost cruel when motorist looking to relieve himself found me. Part of my wished he hadn't but there was not much else that could be done then. Him and his buddy played the rescuers, and I played the victim; freed me from my entrapment, got my bike on the road, kindly offered to call for help or stay with me, and I declined as graciously as I could and limped both myself and bike home.
But after so long, I had an answer.
I don't want to live.
I don't deserve to live.
My life has no meaning.
But it also means that I don't have to care anymore either. Not about trying to maximize my career. No more forcing myself to fake smiles to make friends I can't find any connection with. No worry about finding a partner. Not about measuring myself or trying to improve or anything.
That photograph on my phone is meaningless to everyone else.
To me, it was where I finally found peace. And nothing can ever replace that.
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.
Being too cool for school really steals a lot of joy from the people who subscribe to that idea. I was a tourist at Pisa not long ago and we really unironically enjoyed "leaning" into our roles as tourists, and now we have fun pictures.
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 yours.
I took the girls all around the US, around the world even as they were growing up. I had grown up in a “camera family” so always had one on trips as a parent too.
Now, with two decades behind me, the photos of my young daughters, wife are the vacation photos I return to.
Oldest daughter is wearing a kimono sipping tea at some place in the mountains of Japan… Two youngest are chasing each other on the beach of some island in Hawaii…
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.
This is funny because I found myself wishing the exact same thing not too long ago. My family took a few pictures of ancient computers with things on the screen; I wish we'd had a lot more. Some of that stuff from back then is completely lost to the sands of time.
We started watching ER since HBO got it last month. My favorite thing about it is the time-capsule of 1994 that it is. The clothes. The software (likely a terminal to a mainframe!). The stacks on stacks of physical documents (no EMR!).
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.
Photographs of shelves of VHS tapes, books, and TTRPGs from childhood, and the homes of relatives are what I value above a lot of other photos. I had one of the earliest digital cameras, but the photos survived many data losses, and finally being of an age to appreciate a favourite book of a long-deceased relative is unspeakably special.
You mean in the sense that no one sends/receives them? Because that might be true for the younger generation, but postcards are still available literally anywhere I've been in the world, and are still very easy to send, for those who enjoy that.
I just came back from two weeks touring Thailand. No postcards to be found anywhere. None. Lots of Buddha and elephant souvenirs though... Not sure what to make of that, but I guess they just weren't selling anymore?
In the last 5 or so trips (Europe and Africa), I was able to both find and send postcards from all of the countries. So they are definitely out there, and it is a nice way to put a smile on someone's face, especially since they are so rarely sent and received.
just got back from there - same. They had various novelty postcards, e.g. build a bridge or elephant out of them - but no picture postcards from the region.
The worse-looking (grotty, run-down, probably mostly sells cigarettes) type of souvenir shop has the best chance of selling postcards, in my experience. The photographs might have been taken in 1995.
I've been to some countries where only the official post office was allowed to sell stamps. That makes things much more inconvenient than the shop selling postcards also selling the stamps.
replaced with "if I wanted a pic of a monument I'd look it up on the net" (or even I'd generate it myself). Same; Instead of getting someone in front of a nice scenery (or even getting the scenery by itself), I consider putting a nice background to the photos of people I love.
I would frame it differently, since I keep seeing a lot of very old photos of ie glaciers in Chamonix, France area that are very different now and much receded and thinned.
Don't photo (much) things that won't change. Things that change - people, but also landscape to certain level, cars, technology, even some buildings, sure its amazing to look back for you, or anybody else after decades and see the change. Obviously people change the most.
Basic photography advice is to have something alive in each photo. Not 100% but a good rule of thumb.
This is really important point. Photos without people can be art.
But photos with people capture memories. As a photographer I had to learn this with time and blurry, bad angled picture with favourite people capturing precious moment is zilions times more valuable (at least to me) than perfect picture of some architecture I took.
About 15 years ago, I was traveling and taking some photos with my gf at the time. I remember this photographer with a very professional camera, like one of those you see on the sports field. He made some comment towards us, trying to joke.. Why do people take photos of themselves, you know what they look like.
For a moment I thought...he's right, I see myself and my girlfriend all the time.
Then I realized...objects, never change, why do you take it. What makes your photo unique? He was by himself, taking photos. He has no one to capture his moment.
Although I don't disagree with him - I do have some nice landscape and photos, of just trees, mountains, and of course tourist buildings. But in modern times...I will always take a photo with, and without people.
Sometimes I look back and I am in the mood to just look at places I've visited, sometimes, I want to look a who I visited with.
I hope that man found someone he enjoys taking photos with/of.
That's very interesting. I don't do the same thing for religious reasons. So the photos I do have are utilitarian, e.g., pictures I took of some plants for the purpose of later IDing them. Such things are quite fascinating to look back at 8 years later.
We also don't have any wedding photos, newborn photos, family photos, etc and there is a certain special feeling to knowing what someone looked like when they were younger lives only in our memories. Particularly in a world where we are flooded with pictures all the time.
The AI era makes this even more interesting. A custom in our circles is to try to find a photo for your profile pic on WhatsApp that maybe sort of looks like you, since it can't be a photo actually of you. So now AI-generated photos are quite popular for this purpose. I think it is an interesting art form.
Likewise, new baby announcements don't have a photo of the baby... you will get either an artistic impression or something, or else something AI generated, often of another type of animal. My second son was represented by a koala bear, my first daughter by abstract watercolours. I enjoy not knowing what a friend's baby looks like until I meet them for the first time.
I also find some of my friends and family, well, I don't regularly see pictures of them, and I tend to remember them however I first saw them. They age, but my memory of them lives on.
I understand this feeling. When I was younger I took a lot of time preparing and taking meaningless random pictures.
Years later I started taking pictures only with the people I was with.
Nowadays that smartphones got much better, I just start recording a video of the moments I think will be worth remembering, but without paying much attention to the frame, I just record and that’s it.
Years later when you watch them it feels much more vivid than watching a still dead photo.
While I certainly enjoy pictures of my friends and loved ones, I also deeply enjoy a few of the landscape photos I’ve taken. For me, I have a really really difficult time remembering a place or memory or situation unless I can recall the physical space I was in. A picture of a pretty vista and a few photos of the nearby surround area immediately helps me recall my feelings, who I was with, and the overall memory of the place, usually to great enjoyment
It was never about scarcity, it was about setting up future-you to find those pictures (digitally or otherwise) and be reminded of the people you were with when you took them.
I missed out so much. When I was a college student, I rejected photos, as digital cameras where everywhere, and I was a snob, in my high school times taking analog camera photo. I read a lot of books about Zen, living in the moment, but now I regret this. The view photos I have I cherish as very dear memories.
When modern smartphones first came out, I rejected them as a snob too. I continued to believe a dumb phone plus a dedicated camera was a better choice. But of course I often forget to bring the better camera out and I missed out on so much too. There's a reason people say the best camera is the camera you have with you.
I've started more traveling the world the past two years. The pictures I review when I get back didn't seem as interesting as those with my wife in the scene. Even a crowded street scene with multicolored houses was just OK except the one with my wife looking at a fruit stand.
From now on, I will include my travel companions whenever I can.
I generally have disdain for picture taking on vacations, but leaning on the tower is definitely one I would make an exception for. Sure it's tacky and unoriginal, but that's what makes it mandatory!
I like seeing pictures taken by my friends. I like discussing those pictures with them. Conversely I also like creating and curating my own pictures to share with like-minded friends. It is prosocial all around.
The article is appalling. To me it more effectively conveys his character than his ideas. Maybe for some people it really is hard to find a balance.
I think I’m living in the moment. I still take 50-100 pictures on a day trip to a new place. I don’t feel like that means I don’t enjoy the moment. took a ski lift up a mountain, too maybe 3 pics up and 3 down. 20-30 seconds total of a 5-10 minute experience
If I was to guess what might take me out is if I was addicted to instantly posting them, watching the likes and comments flow in, and viewing my friends posts, at the same moment.
I take the pictures and then a day or two later I post 5-8 of the best, if I thought this particular experience was worth sharing. The point being I’m not thinking about posting and likes during the experience. My time spent on photos is < 1%
Yes, I was an adult before digital cameras were a thing. I have what feels like zero pictures of my life before about 1996. Comparing the two I will gladly take having a camera over not having a camera.
This is one of the quieter yet transformative changes I've seen tech bring to life - digital cameras removed the cost and hassle of film. Photography before the mid 90s was about deliberate choices of whether a shot was worth the actual cost of the film as well as being one of a couple dozen shots available to you without having to change film rolls. But now, whipping out 50-100 photos while out for the day is quick, easy, and almost free.
Consumption of the photos changed as well, but I'm going to let the idea of negatives, prints, and literal slide shows wait for another day. The point is that photography today is not the same as photography in the prior century.
At least for my father in law, the habit of recording everything started when personal camcorders were first release. We have countless tape of completely random day to day life when my wife was little. There are obviously tapes of more important or memorable moments too, but he just always had a camcorder rolling.
When you watch those episodes of Maury where they have a father-less baby up on stage, and they are trying to figure who the daddy is, you have to contend with the fact that there's an entire audience in-person and at-home that are just taking part in the sheer entertainment of what will ultimately be that child's most embarrassing and deep sorrow in life. Not only that, but we film the spectacle. This was a hit show for decades and commonly accepted to be hilarious, especially those situations. At no point in those decades did society stand back and examine just how heinous it is.
I suspect this is true for large scale exhibitionism and voyeurism (which is what this is, you are either a subject or the voyeur in these pictures, and if you are both, then you are narcissist). It's been going on for decades and it's heinous. The sheer scale of it will not allow our society to stand back and examine it. I consider all these things part of our current public crucifixions. And like litter, the harmless gum wrappers (the selfies, the "look where I am" photos, etc) have accumulated into a pure garbage world. That's the power of accumulation, and now we all live in Garbage Land.
Our society is nasty and has been for as long as we can remember. It takes constant reflection to clean the grime and address our hygiene, in all its wonderous forms (put the fucking camera down please).
Rorschach out.
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I had an idea for a small short story about the after life where God pulls you into a small video editing room and makes you sit through every frame of what your eyes recorded. It would take a lifetime to get through, and every time you are committing a sin he pauses the giant film and you feel the utter presence of judgement. This goes on for every frame until you are begging for mercy with a newfound realization of just how damning the concept of an "observer" is. Smile, someone's watching. Sure as hell aint going to fool him with our curated album (can't we just look at the good stuff?). We look at all of it or none of it. Which brings us to the final point - did you fool anyone?
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 that's been brought up across, it seems, science, religion, and philosophy. As in, a lot of different fields have broached this topic leading to at the very least, a pretty interesting coincidence. Of course, first-hand testimonies just add to the mystery.
I use a film camera, which removes the possibility of infinite shots. It works for me! And since I must print the pictures, I make duplicates and share with friends and family.
You can give it a try: there are very easy cameras!
Don't know what country you're in, but in general people has been picking up analog cameras again. Madrid probably has at least doubled or tripled the number of print shops in the last 5 years.
The real problem is the price of film has skyrocketed. Since factories has been closing in the last ten years, the offer is low, and the demand is high... Even low quality Chinese stock is going for prices higher than professional rolls where 5 or 6 years ago.
I was looking for a similar experience, where I take a picture only to immediately go back into the moment, without disrupting anything.
All those compact cameras were still too large for that purpose, because as the saying goes: "The best camera is the one you always have on you"
After some searching I found an AWESOME gem of a little camera: The DxO One, a camera from back in 2016 from DxO, a company actually specialized in benchmarking camera-quality.
The device was built to be sold at ~700 USD, but flopped and can still be purchased as old-stock for ~110 USD now.
Size is fantastic, Pictures are great, I can only recommend it if someone just wants to capture a moment like it is without people getting pulled out of it.
The device is also somewhat hackable [0], as it's based on the Ambarella platform (RTOS and Linux).
I started collecting infos about it to preserve it [1], there's still alot of potential in this little gem.
for someone who wants to try that without investing in film camera and film development, there are small handheld printers that can print directly from a phone (and I guess a computer). It doesn't remove the possibility of infinite shots but it allows to focus on the shot you really want to keep and print
When I was an exchange student I lived with other people and we went out partying every night, had a ton of fun, and still had a ton of fun rewatching pictures of the night the next day. This was a time where you'd have an actual camera. Sometimes me and friends from that era share back the pictures and have a laugh.
10 years report:
Nowadays google photos regularly shows me those "memories" from years ago of my kids (turning 9 and 11), and about half the time I share them back with my wife and viceversa, and we get moved a bit or have a fun moment.
I really don't see why taking pictures would ruin an experience, unless you go _wildly_ overboard to prioritize the picture.
I'm with you here! I take lots of pictures. I picked up that stupid habit when I was a teenager with my family's digital camera. Eventually got a small canon for christmas and kept it in my pocket until I had a smartphone.
I'm not the kinda person to hold my camera up in the air filming a concert or whatever. But pictures of family! Pictures of random food I enjoyed or found cute. Pictures of random cute things in the store. Pictures of friends and cars and the beach and whatever else.
So much changes in the world. I love looking back at old pictures. During covid my mom and I would get together and dig through and find old stuff to post on facebook. It was a lot of fun.
I mean. I have pictures of random old cereal boxes I found amusing at the time. I have pictures I'm quite proud of, and others that just capture random happy moments.
I don't know what people mean about change? Things change a lot. People change, things change, the world changes. I have pictures of vegas casinos that were demolished years ago. Foods that aren't made anymore. I have a random picture of a quarter pounder meal from like 2005. Why not? XD
Those sorts of things cost me no time or effort really. Whipped out the camera real quick. Click. Put it away. Go back to enjoying my life. :)
> I really don't see why taking pictures would ruin an experience, unless you go _wildly_ overboard to prioritize the picture.
Some people learned this lesson in the days of clunky, fragile, expensive cameras.
If you were carting around 5 lbs of DSLR camera and accessories, you weren't scrambling up that rock or going into the sea or getting on that rollercoaster.
> 3. Will it have historical significance in 10 years time?
I mean, almost by definition there's basically no way of knowing this right?
A picture of a mountainside with nothing interesting going on other than nature might not be significant in 10 years, or maybe the entire landscape has transformed into something completely different.
I grew up in Bali, Indonesia. In the 90s, where I lived was nothing but lush jungle and beaches, with a few very small houses here and there dotting things. By the 2000s we had actual asphalt roads, and by the 2010s we had a full on highway on the south of the island. The stretch of land where I grew up is quite literally incomparable to what it looked like before despite my house not changing much, and it took roughly 10 years to reach that state. I would've loved if I had a camera back then to record the changes as they were happening, because you'd be amazed how quickly things become significant in some way, not to mention any potential memories of a place you think of fondly!
I have at least 140k digital photos (almost 30 years of digital camera / camera phone usage). They are all uploaded into google photos, not for archiving, just to have easy access. I look up and reference stuff all the time and while doing so I see lots of things that trigger memories. Many of those are "a picture someone else would’ve already taken" like famous places but it doesn't matter. If they weren't in my photo collection then they wouldn't be there to bring back memories. Further, they are my picture of the time/place/date/weather when I was there. Sure I look up pictures of the Grand Canyon or Times Square or the London Eye or the Eiffel Tower, those are not as powerful for my own use as the pictures I took.
Speaking of which, I'd get even more use of these pictures if Google photo search was better. I'm looking forward to when some photo service is 1000x better for searching. Right now if I put I can put in "dog" and see that it's listing too many photos with no dog or pictures with "hot-dog". If I enter "black dog" it shows pictures with black color somewhere in the picture, like a shadow, and a dog. If I enter "dog with black hair" it says no results, even though I pictures of black labs. I tried "dog on beach". I know I have some. "dog in pool" got two results by I know a very dear picture of my younger sister with our dog in the pool and it didn't find it.
Looking forward to LLM/AI enhanced photo search so I can just say "show me photos of my sister in the pool with our dog" or "show me pictures of my trip to paris with my mom". As it, I have to find these through other means (remembeing the date, etc...)
> But with a picture, I could relive it for a bit.
I used to think the same. But in the end, this is not true for me personally. Having pictures of events or valuable moments does not add any (or much) value when remembering these situations. This of course may differ from person to person - but I guess we use to have this assumption from your quote as a given default. Overall I get the most "value" from focusing on situations when they are there, instead of wasting it by capturing them.
Take pictures. Hoard them. No point sharing them, no point carefully organizing or editing them.
Just know that somewhere there's the pile of pictures of years past, in approximately chronological order.
You will not remember what you have forgotten. When you flip through the old photos you'll remember that you did much more than you can pull straight from memory.
This becomes more valuable as you get older, not only will you likely feel that your memory is becoming lower in resolution(my memory felt photographic until late 20s, the assumption it would always be that good turned out wrong) but you'll also have more bygone years to remember from as you get older.
But don't back up photos to an SSD that is unplugged from power.
I don't like those pictures, those almost always look artificial and empty. I think you can have your camera at your disposal and capture the picture of the moment as it happens. Sure, take a group shot but don't count to three as it most definitely ruins it.
There are a lot of different reasons for taking photos, though
I carry my camera 24/7 because I am a photographer who makes visual art and I might make art any time of any day. It isn’t about publishing or social capital or performance, it’s about making the best art I can for me and myself alone.
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 of good camera-hardware and ultra-compact design, at a (now) crazy-low price. It almost has a analogue-camera feel to it, because you don't get to review the picture instantly but have to connect it to a phone or PC first.
It's a hardware designed for a ~700 USD pricetag. It flopped but it can still be purchased at ~110 USD as old stock, and that's hard to beat for a large-sensor (1" size) camera with a great lens (f/1.8 with mechanical iris).
It has a tiny display for rough configuration, linux OS, I started collecting data about it, because it also has quite some potential to be hacked and customized [0]
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!
> 10 years later, I regret having essentially no pictures of anything
Yes. I take lots of photos and even I regret not having more, or videos of the kids learning to walk or learning to talk.
Also: memories are fleeting, very fast. I've been keeping a journal for five years now; I try to describe my day the day after at the latest, but when I miss a day or two it's incredibly hard to remember anything--anything!!-- about what I did 48 hours ago.
Some moments stay with you for the rest of your life, but most of the things that you do disappear from your mind extremely fast.
You will absolutely remember the birth of your first kid, with many details and the sweet and sour smell of hospital corridors, camera or not; but not everything is like that (actually, nothing is like that!)
Now the counter-argument is maybe that what you don't remember didn't deserve to be remembered; but I don't agree with that. Memories is the only thing that's truly ours.
Exactly the same, I now understand that I took that way too personally and having 0 pictures of yourself plus not having any social media made me lose contact with lots of old friends.
For many years, I'd take a mix of photos - some posed, some candids, some landscape/architecture/whatever.
Recently, I've found myself trending heavily towards candids/snapshots. Heck, I never asked for a Polaroid for Christmas to even further "dumb down" my photography. And all my 35mm film cameras are fixed-lens rangefinders (35 DC, 35 RC, and a Demi EE-17).
I still try to be thoughtful about what/when I''m shooting. Especially with my film cameras (film + processing isn't cheap). But, I spend less total time looking through the viewfinder.
My story is when my Dad died and my family looked for a nice picture of him to use in his obituary it was difficult to do. Why? Nearly all pictures were birthdays, Christmas, maybe Thanksgiving, repeat. No spontaneous pictures just the basic holidays.
I'm sure I did sneak a few candid pictures over the years but that leads to another issue a sea of unsorted pictures on who knows what media.
Also elderly people not good with technology, the cost of it, may be embarrassed to say often no longer take pictures.
For years, I made the conscious decision to focus entirely on enjoying moments instead of taking photos and recording videos. I now regret having been so strict about that.
Before I got married and settled down to work on building my family, I had so much fun as a single man. I traveled to so many places, enjoyed many concerts, went to lots of events/conferences, etc. Fast forward to now, I have nothing to show for most of it (other than maybe passport stamps and whatnot). Sometimes, I wish I could show my wife what it was like when I was in this or that country, but I can’t—it’s all just in my head!
My wife is pretty much the opposite of me when it comes to this. She has snapshots of most of her adult life. I came to truly appreciate her commitment to maintaining snapshots of our lives after we had our first child, because I noticed how quickly our little baby was growing and I constantly wanted to see how he looked and what he was doing a month ago, two months ago, etc. If it had been up to me, we likely would have very few of the photos and videos we have now.
I don't get this mode of thinking, that if you don't have pictures there is no proof you were somewhere. Are we trying to prove something to the jury or what?
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.
Like we didn't "yearn to capture" moments all the time, the way we do now, even in the 80s and 90s.
Even though regular and compact and even disposable cameras were available, few walked around with one or used within the year. At best somebody would take a camera on holiday or some major life event, which is like 1/100 of current use.
In another 10 years, it's very likely that the majority of our waking hours (especially on vacation) will be continuously recorded by some worn gadget (e.g. glasses or a locket). A separate "AI" will review that footage for photographically or narratively interesting stills and video clips. There will also likely be a tour-guide "AI" that will encourage you to see certain sites and pose for certain types of photos.
I actually took up photography as a hobby when I was a teen. Set up a darkroom and everything. Somewhere along the way in life realized I never looked at my photos. So I just stopped taking them and never really missed it. I do use my phone camera as sort of a notepad when that is handy. E.g. if I’m working on something and I want to document which parts go where, or to send to someone and ask “what is this” but I usually delete them after they’ve served their purpose.
I've found that many special moments, excursions to special places, are best experienced exactly that way, in the moment, without fiddling with that camera app and being behind the viewfinder. In fact, look at any live footage of a large event with a V.I.P., such as a popular politician, a rock star, or the Holy Father, working the crowd of tourists. Now look at all those unfortunate people who are behind viewfinders. They are still electronically mediated, even though they're only a few inches from the very person they admire so much. Isn't it truly sad that they're struggling to get some "ShakyCam" footage that would get any newscaster fired, instead of reaching their hand out, smiling, seeing that scene unfold before their actual eyes?
Therefore there are many events where I won't bring a camera. I'll experience it as it unfolds. It's more rewarding that way. In fact, many large events are already so well-covered by a professional camera crew -- why bother? I mean, I'll just go look it up later on Facebook anyway, right?
My current exception is astrophotography; firstly possible to see bodies that are much, much fainter with the assistance of the smartphone camera. The photos reveal details I could never detect with an unassisted eye. For example, last year's big comet: I stood at an intersection to sight it, and it was invisible until I pointed my camera in that direction. And astrophotography is a nice technical means of stargazing in specific ways with a specific field of view and live time constraints. I mean, if I really want to see a huge arbitrary starfield, there are plenty of apps that can simulate it for me. But if I curate my own star photographs, I can edit them, add notes, and share them around.
Computer SSD can hold more books than all books you ever saw in your life.
saw, not read, saw in movies, saw in photographs, saw in magazines. all that can fit into your SSD
So just make freaking daily journal. there is plenty of space. You will be surprised what everything you did forgot. you will be surprised how your brain worked few years back. etc etc
And computer can hold more and retrieve faster then any other mechanism.
Also most wealthy people i know have their own "CRM system", where they note contents of phone calls, meetings etc, it is even easier with current state of AI/ML transcription services. They note names of children, spouse of their business partners. Hobbies, life situations, birthdays.... and they WILL look you up, right before you enter their office for joint meeting, so they can have conversation with you...
This just feels like the usual throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater style backlash toward over-saturation of anything and everything. Yes, there are people who live in their phones. Yes, there are people who take so many photos and videos of what's around them that they fail to actually experience those things in the moment.
The solution isn't to throw away our technology. It's to develop better habits and better relationships with what we use to enhance our lives. Because that's the point: to enhance our lives, not to diminish them. If you feel that your tech is diminishing your life, that's probably a sign that you need to re-examine how you use it. Throwing it away entirely is a wasteful response that might "fix" the diminishing effects, but will also deprive you of the enhancements.
Before smartphones (and/or decent camera phones), I used to carry a small point-and-shoot digital camera with me nearly everywhere. I loved having it with me, and friends always enjoyed when I'd share photos of moments where most people would never think to bring a camera to capture. Being able to ditch that camera and instead use an often-better smartphone camera has been so freeing and wonderful. But I don't live behind the screen of my phone; I snap photos quickly, and rarely take video (though lately I've been disappointed in the lack of video over the past decade, so I'm re-evaluating my stance there).
We can have a healthy relationship with our phones. Commercial interests of course want us to be glued to them 24/7, but that's not how it has to be.
(And I feel like the author of this piece maybe doesn't even disagree with me; he says he still takes snapshots on his phone in his hometown. He's more talking about the mindset he gets into when he has a "real" camera: one of detachment from his surroundings.)
This is how I feel too. For me it feels great to have a powerful camera in my pocket wherever I go. I enjoy being 'present' within my surroundings and open and observant for potential images. This practice feels almost like a meditation, and capturing photographs in my local neighborhood as well as anywhere else is part of the experience of living my best life.
I take photos so I can go back to them as a different person and see details I didn't see the first time.
I first visited Chicago in 2006 and took a bunch of pictures. It was all a blur to me.
Later I became a Chicago resident in 2017, and suddenly those pictures had a new meaning for me. I began to appreciate the details more. Some things didn't change (Metra tickets were clipped on top of the seat in 2006, and it still was in 2019). But the UChicago campus had evolved since my first visit in 2006. Evanston had also changed greatly.
As a new Chicagoan in 2017, it was cool for me look at 2006 pictures again with new eyes and new knowledge (e.g. I now knew the Chicago grid system, the dibs system, that deep dish isn't actually that deep, that the quality of Harolds' Chicken Shack is branch specific, etc.).
I had a similar experience when I moved to Stockholm a few years after visiting for the first time. Looking over my photos from the original trip, it was delightful to recognise landmarks that I now had the context for, and to notice all the things that had changed - and those that had stayed the same! - in the intervening time.
In fact, my primary regret is that I didn't take more photos - there are things I remember visiting, like a specific cafe, that I don't think I'll ever be able to locate again because my memory is far fuzzier than the photographic record.
I like to take [not very good] landscape photos. The reality is (at least for someone whose not very good) landscape photography often involves getting to specific places at weird times (often before dawn or exactly at dinner time) setting up your camera, and staring through the viewfinder for an hour or so, and snapping off shots as lighting and conditions slightly change.
While I often enjoy this experience, this just is not compatible with hanging out with people who aren’t into it. Your friends/partners will hate you. Your kids just will not stand for it in anyway.
I’ve gotten some photos I like doing this (when my friends/family were not present), but coming home from a family vacation, the photos I enjoy more are almost always the random snapshots of my kids taken in 2 seconds on my iPhone.
I am old enough to remember not only when phones didn't have cameras, but we didn't carry phones at all. In those days, it was somewhat unusual to carry your film camera with you everywhere, and it would have been remarkable (rude even) to be constantly taking photos. Not to mention it would get expensive quickly. But what a loss! Times change and memories fade...
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 light. I took the shot, deleted it and went home. I didn't press down the shutter button for 5+ years after that.
Now that cell phones exist and I got a super powerful camera in my pocket at all times. I really enjoy taking snapshots. Which for non-photographers are the lowest quality of photos that someone takes(1 out of 5). Occasionally, I'll do a trip to take a picture of something, but I tone down the seriousness of it and make sure that i'm not doing more than enjoying the moment and taking a snapshot. What I really missed was getting out there, it wasn't the photography. The photography just forced me to get out there.
Oh, I do remember I was thinking like this in high school, "live through the moment, don't take pictures".
I didn't account for my memory being shot even in my 30s. I would love to have a couple of photos or videos of some events, but I don't, and I can no longer remember what it was like at all.
Nope. For a lot of them I'm assuming I was intoxicated, I was like that. I kind of hated high school overall, some parts (that I do remember) were alright.
I think moderation is key. With a modern smartphone with a camera button, it’s not a burden to take a few quick pictures while still being in the moment.
I certainly enjoy having a few pictures and maybe a short video of a concert to help stimulate my brain later on when I’m reflecting on the experience. But then I put my phone down and enjoy myself, and to try to not be rude to anyone else (and I hold my camera no higher than my face).
I also think that with modern stabilization it’s easy to be taking decent videos while not being too focused on operating your camera.
The biggest challenge I have with this technological age is that even healthily moderate documentation becomes a data management nightmare. It feels like I’m constantly deleting irrelevant photos and pruning my library and it’s still far too big.
I agree, and I would add that experience helps with not having to spend all your energy on taking the picture. I know intuitively now where to stand, when to take the picture, how to frame it.
I did lug my DSLR into the delivery room, I got decent pictures without asking the medics to move, and I was present in the moment too. If anything, I wish someone took pictures of me that fine day.
My biggest challenge is making sure I don't lose it all due to corruption (local) or a shuttered service (cloud).
When I read about this topic, I’m always reminded of David Lynch’s Lost Highway:
Ed: Do you own a video camera?
Renee Madison: No. Fred hates them.
Fred Madison: I like to remember things my own way.
Ed: What do you mean by that?
Fred Madison: How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.
> When in 5-10+ years you'll really regret not having a few pictures (and videos!) here and there.
I can't say I ever have. I think that different people are happy with different things (hot take, I know lol). That doesn't make the advice bullshit, it just means that it will be valuable for some and not sure others.
It's not the advice itself that is bullshit, it's that it's repeated as a mantra by people all the time.
While I agree that everyone has different opinions, I do think the average person will appreciate being able to look back after so many years instead of having nothing due to repeating some mantra without thinking about it.
Note that the author stopped carrying a camera with him in his hometown, in order to "live in the moment", as per the article. My point was made generically.
I've taken photos on and off for decades. Too many here seem to be, much like everything else these days, all or nothing. With just a little bit of common sense/discipline it is pretty easy to balance the taking of photos with the "being there" experience. This especially applies to cell phone snapshots. You don't need to be taking tens or hundreds of shots to document an experience. A handful or less will do.
I was on a vacation with a gf 10 years ago or so, and we had a rented car and were driving across [European country] and we had taken a lot of photos and I just started feeling like we were focused on the camera too much instead of just experiencing where we were. So I said "let's put the cameras away and let's just be in the moment".
so we did. and 30 seconds later we saw something incredible and I screamed "GETTTTTT THE CAAAAAMERAAAA!"
for the rest of our vacation, that was our tagline. You can't live outside the time you live in. Everything is a trade off. We enjoyed the trip a lot.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 294 ms ] threadIt’s one thing to miss a moment, like the author of this article did, because you’re fiddling with a camera but it’s also a thing to capture a moment and have it forever. How many times have you shown someone a photo and they say with amazement and excitement “No way! I’d almost forgotten got about that!” - many for me.
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, instead of feel amazed and hold up my camera to record it. Besides, how often do I look at those photos later, anyway? I find it more useful to refer to my journal of how I felt, instead of what I saw.
A few times, GPS could have helped, but because I didn’t have it, I had to go ask strangers for directions. Getting lost led me down some great little back roads I never would have found if I was following the map.
So now I intentionally travel without a phone.
I feel free and untethered. A break from connection.
Where you are is partially defined by where you are not. When you’re somewhere, you’re not somewhere else. But when you use your phone, you’re everywhere. You keep in touch with friends. You hear what’s going on at home. You see the screen exactly as you do anywhere else.
It’s wonderful to be cut off from everywhere else — to be more fully only there.
And it’s so nice to not know the time or where I am. Clocks and maps are useful inventions, but I see a moment better without them.
I appreciate a moment more when I know I’ll never see it again. I remember that day in Seoul better than I remember most photo-filled travels.
I think a large part of taking photos and recording things for a lot of people is that they like to journal and record things, in part, for future generations to have.
Like it's great you had those amazing experiences, but in a sense it's as if they're also going to die with you as well (assuming you even have children).
Of course, nothing wrong with what you're describing. I definitely can feel there's value in how you approach it, and I often fantasise about spending an entire year without technology at all.
How you remember something has more value than how it was. Over time it will morph in to the truth you experienced. In the same way a painter captures what they see not what is in front of them.
Enjoy the ride. Thank you.
And then I remember that this may well be the only time in my life that I will see these places, meet these people, and try these things. That the more I bring with me, the less mental room I have to savor, enjoy, and process the world around me in those precious moments.
I’m going to bring either my X100F, or splurge on a GFX100RF. That’ll be it. No flashes, no tripods, no laptops, no international high-speed data plan. Just me, a point-and-shoot, and unlimited EDGE data for the odd GPS route.
I want to use my photographs to remind me of times gone by, traveling alone, when my memory is foggy or old age has caught up with me. I don’t want to be in photographer mode, I want to be in-the-moment mode.
I loaded up hard. R5, the "holy trinity" (15-35/2.8, 28-70/2, 70-200/2.8), 100-500, and an 85/1.2. I used two lenses, mostly one (the 28-70).
I am going on a trip, two weeks in Maui. And I'm going to take an X100VI, for most days, and mirrorless with 2 lenses for 2 or 3 of the days tops. I have an SSD with a CF/SD reader, and both cameras I will have have USB-C charging so I want to enjoy, but not have the experience be secondary to photography.
We did manage to pull out our phones and grab a video. A year later, I’m so glad we did — even more fun than seeing the cassowary step across the trail is hearing our voices excitedly whisper to each other about how big and close it was.
I’m jealous of your trip. Not a day goes by that I don’t reminisce fondly on ours. And I’m sure you’ll strike the right balance between being a photographer and being in the moment :)
Sounding so confused like this makes it seem like you don't travel much? If you like taking pictures take them, if you don't then don't. I wouldn't over think this.
If you really haven't traveled much maybe take a trip and see how you feel about it
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.
That's wonderful for you, but my brain doesn't work that way. My memories tend to get very fuzzy over time, and photos are a very powerful aid for me in recall. My photos of a trip with my wife to France last summer are already reminding me of details I've forgotten. I just took a trip to Japan last month, and I expect, before too long, that the same will be true of the photos I took there.
> It’s wonderful to be cut off from everywhere else — to be more fully only there.
You can take photos and still fully be there. There are many many points on the spectrum between not having a camera at all, and viewing the world through your phone's screen because you are taking photos or video of nearly everything.
> But when you use your phone, you’re everywhere. You keep in touch with friends. You hear what’s going on at home. You see the screen exactly as you do anywhere else.
It's a shame that so many people have such a bad relationship with their tech that they can't put it away. I absolutely do use my phone for mapping and navigation and other useful tasks while I'm traveling, but I tend to put it on do-not-disturb mode, and ignore it much more than I do at home. I still wander around, without a particular destination in mind, and get "lost" often enough to spontaneously run into interesting things. Sure, I'm not fully disconnected, but I don't see that as a negative.
Everyone sees and feels the world quite differently without a camera. With one, part of you is preoccupied and looking for images, not with being in the place and feeling the experience.
I might loose out in the pictures-of-my-trip competition, and in the I've-"done"-that-place conversation. But I don't want to be the person who "did" somewhere. I want to be the person who got to know it a bit, who lived it, who met the locals, and who remembers the place and the feelings.
This is most painful when I try to “imagine” my wife’s face, my family, friends, favorite parts of nature, etc, but am left with nothing.
For me, this means that I struggle to remember things from my past beyond major life events. Even major events can be fuzzy for me.
As a result, I’ve always tried to snap quick pictures of what I’m doing, even if it means I have to “step away” from enjoying the moment for a brief second.
A few months ago, I loaded my 30k+ pics (across ~10 yrs) stored on a hard drive into an Immich instance. I can now easily look at those pictures and remember my past in a way that I simply couldn’t beforehand.
This has been an unbelievable improvement in QoL through an improved self-identity, remembrance of my past, and reconnection with memories of lost loved ones.
I can agree with the author on the disruptive nature of picture taking. But for me, none of what I listed above would be possible without capturing my memories in moderation and with pointed intent.
I've never been great about taking photos, but my wife always remembers. Recently spent some time consolidating all of the to Immich and being able to see the "memories" every day is incredible.
When I explain it to people, I always ask them to close their eyes and picture an apple on a table. I then ask them what color the apple is. Everyone I’ve ever done this with (except a sibling) answers a color.
I then say, “to me, there is no color, no apple, no table, no outline; nothing.” Always a leads to fun discussion :)
Well that was a fun side quest for the evening. One thing I read is aphantasia is common among siblings also.
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 situations suddenly clicked and it was like a bomb of realization went off in my brain.
- [0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-ey...
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 as referenced in the link could be deep meditation.
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.
Except I don't really visualize what was there, but I "feel" them. It's not just a grocery list of elements for a scene, rather I have a strong sensation of being in the moment.
Both my mom and my sister has multiple times expressed surprise at my recall.
On the other hand, old pictures doesn't really do that much for me. Sure it's fun to watch them, and maybe they jog some memories, but I don't feel I need them.
That said, I'm open to future me regretting not taking pictures, so when on vacation or similar I do try to take some pictures.
For example, I have a great spatial memory, which is obviously not due to my ability to “see” things in my mind. Instead, when asked how I can remember spatial things (e.g., “which way did we come from on our hike?”), all I can say is that I simply “feel” the path.
If you’re curious, this is because different parts of our brain are responsible for visual spatial processing vs. visual object processing. The dorsal visual pathway is responsible for spatial processing, and the ventral visual pathway is responsible for object processing, like faces. This is all “bottom up” visual processing.
Bottom up visual processing is independent from internal cognitive activation of these pathways, which can arise from frontoparietal engagement of the same “endpoints” as the dorsal/central visual pathways. This is “top down” processing.
My ability to “feel a spatial cognitive map without images” argues that there are some miswirings between my frontoparietal cortex and my temporal cortex. This is why I can still recognize faces, objects, etc., but can’t see them in my mind.
Visual imagery during dreaming adds an entire other layer onto the topic :)
Here are some good reviews and articles on the topic:
[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10538...
[1] https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S136...
[2] https://academic.oup.com/cercorcomms/article/2/2/tgab035/626...
I’ve also learned over the years that photography is actually a gateway to being present for me. I spent the first 30+ years of my life in my head. Photography helps me pay attention to my surroundings, and is a kind of mindfulness practice in many ways.
When I go back and look at old images, it always surprises me how much I’ve forgotten.
I do think it can be taken too far, but at least for me, it’s been an invaluable tool for all of the reasons you mentioned.
I’m curious how you capture pics. I use my iPhone. Over the past few years, I’ve also started taking short videos, as the iPhone video processing is just unbelievably good. The videos capture nice audio context, and really help me remember the “being” of the memory. iPhone pics are good too, but of course the sensor size is the main limitation. I have been thinking about looking for a dedicated small digital camera.
Curious to hear what you use!
But I still use my iPhone for some things - especially video.
There are some great compact micro four thirds cameras on the market that are better than a phone but still small enough to carry regularly. The “Micro Four Nerds” YouTube channel is a great resource if you’re curious. She covers many of the really compact every day carry cameras on the market and best lenses for various scenarios.
MFT cameras are a great gateway into the hobby, and some of the more vintage looking bodies just inspire me to take them everywhere and take photos.
Highly recommend looking at used gear on sites like mpb.com or keh.com. Can usually find lightly used equipment for significantly less than retail pricing.
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" pictures (blurry pictures from funny angles don't count...). Especially from important moments. Yes, I was there living the moment. But with a picture, I could relive it for a bit.
It's not hard to find the balance, though, I guess. You don't have to constantly be filming everything. Maybe just get the group together for one picture at the end of the event and that's it. Good enough.
That's what'll I try from now on at least. Report back in 10 years...
So for years, I smugly avoided taking photos—too cool for clichés. It only hit me much later that I wasn’t missing out on better shots of monuments… I was missing pictures of the people I was with. Family and friends looking younger, sometimes happier, and—how shall I put it—sometimes still alive.
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.
They also go away faster than you expect.
It's easy (an often correct) to assume that most such photos will never be seen again, or maybe scrolled by quickly at best, but the fact is one doesn't know the motivation of the photographer, nor how they might change their motivation in the future to actually make use of that photo.
Even if it's just walks around a city center, I have a thing for photographing street art, and uploading the different photos to my walks and it places them at their locations on the recorded path/map of the walk (or hike) to be revisited/replayed when feeling nostalgic.
It also helps to be more discerning about what photos to keep (do I really need another wide landscape shot?) But once the "worthy" photos of my walk/hike are added, I remove the others from my phone and make the recorded activity private for me to enjoy. The context + notes with the photos in one place makes it all mean so much more when I revisit them. I completely ignore all social bits of the app, but this might appeal to some since you can share/fork an activity to the accounts of people that where with you.
*I don't work for them, but been using it over a decade now
They're my favorite memories. NY's Central Park, London's Hyde Park, Norway's fjords, Barcelona's beaches... The best part is that these feel like very tangible memories and take zero physical space to store!
There one of of a non descript mountain turn with a small gravel pullout. There's a million prettier pictures but that one means the most meaning to me.
I almost died there; crashed on my motorcycle. Took the turn just a little too fast, panicked and just went over the edge trying desperately to stop. I don't remember much of the crash itself; just green, brown, and blue. Just that when I finally managed to get myself together, my leg crushed under the bike on on dirt that felt like concrete. No chance of pushing the bike off. No chance of digging or wriggling free. No chance of being seen from the road. My only hope was 911.
Except... I couldn't bring myself to call. There was nothing technically stopping me; good signal strength, modern phone with enhanced positional reporting. Just one little button press and help would be on the way. But why?
Why should I call for help?
Why did I want to keep living?
Why do I deserve to live?
Damned questions that I had been asking myself nearly every day for almost 26 years of my life by then. And here, finally at that mountain road I couldn't run from it any more. But it was also the first real chance I had to put myself to the test; to know myself one way or the other. So I turned my phone off. And left my mortality to the hands of fate.
For 7 hours I just lay there, nothing else to do but watch sun and cloud drift in the sky with waiting for an end. And yet there was a stillness there that I had never experienced before in my life. No more voices demanding that I meet their expectations. No more fear. No more uncertainty. Just a blessed silence with a light at the end of the road that I had no seen in a long time.
It seemed almost cruel when motorist looking to relieve himself found me. Part of my wished he hadn't but there was not much else that could be done then. Him and his buddy played the rescuers, and I played the victim; freed me from my entrapment, got my bike on the road, kindly offered to call for help or stay with me, and I declined as graciously as I could and limped both myself and bike home.
But after so long, I had an answer.
I don't want to live.
I don't deserve to live.
My life has no meaning.
But it also means that I don't have to care anymore either. Not about trying to maximize my career. No more forcing myself to fake smiles to make friends I can't find any connection with. No worry about finding a partner. Not about measuring myself or trying to improve or anything.
That photograph on my phone is meaningless to everyone else.
To me, it was where I finally found peace. And nothing can ever replace that.
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 yours.
I took the girls all around the US, around the world even as they were growing up. I had grown up in a “camera family” so always had one on trips as a parent too.
Now, with two decades behind me, the photos of my young daughters, wife are the vacation photos I return to.
Oldest daughter is wearing a kimono sipping tea at some place in the mountains of Japan… Two youngest are chasing each other on the beach of some island in Hawaii…
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.
You mean in the sense that no one sends/receives them? Because that might be true for the younger generation, but postcards are still available literally anywhere I've been in the world, and are still very easy to send, for those who enjoy that.
I mean both that they are used much less and they're much less available.
You can find postcards of the Coliseum in Rome, but you'll have a hard time finding one of Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola.
Even in major touristic hotspots, 30 years ago you'd find postcards sold at any shop, but these days you have to look for a while, in my experience.
I've been to some countries where only the official post office was allowed to sell stamps. That makes things much more inconvenient than the shop selling postcards also selling the stamps.
Don't photo (much) things that won't change. Things that change - people, but also landscape to certain level, cars, technology, even some buildings, sure its amazing to look back for you, or anybody else after decades and see the change. Obviously people change the most.
Basic photography advice is to have something alive in each photo. Not 100% but a good rule of thumb.
For a moment I thought...he's right, I see myself and my girlfriend all the time.
Then I realized...objects, never change, why do you take it. What makes your photo unique? He was by himself, taking photos. He has no one to capture his moment.
Although I don't disagree with him - I do have some nice landscape and photos, of just trees, mountains, and of course tourist buildings. But in modern times...I will always take a photo with, and without people.
Sometimes I look back and I am in the mood to just look at places I've visited, sometimes, I want to look a who I visited with.
I hope that man found someone he enjoys taking photos with/of.
We also don't have any wedding photos, newborn photos, family photos, etc and there is a certain special feeling to knowing what someone looked like when they were younger lives only in our memories. Particularly in a world where we are flooded with pictures all the time.
The AI era makes this even more interesting. A custom in our circles is to try to find a photo for your profile pic on WhatsApp that maybe sort of looks like you, since it can't be a photo actually of you. So now AI-generated photos are quite popular for this purpose. I think it is an interesting art form.
Likewise, new baby announcements don't have a photo of the baby... you will get either an artistic impression or something, or else something AI generated, often of another type of animal. My second son was represented by a koala bear, my first daughter by abstract watercolours. I enjoy not knowing what a friend's baby looks like until I meet them for the first time.
I also find some of my friends and family, well, I don't regularly see pictures of them, and I tend to remember them however I first saw them. They age, but my memory of them lives on.
Years later I started taking pictures only with the people I was with.
Nowadays that smartphones got much better, I just start recording a video of the moments I think will be worth remembering, but without paying much attention to the frame, I just record and that’s it.
Years later when you watch them it feels much more vivid than watching a still dead photo.
From now on, I will include my travel companions whenever I can.
The article is appalling. To me it more effectively conveys his character than his ideas. Maybe for some people it really is hard to find a balance.
If I was to guess what might take me out is if I was addicted to instantly posting them, watching the likes and comments flow in, and viewing my friends posts, at the same moment.
I take the pictures and then a day or two later I post 5-8 of the best, if I thought this particular experience was worth sharing. The point being I’m not thinking about posting and likes during the experience. My time spent on photos is < 1%
Consumption of the photos changed as well, but I'm going to let the idea of negatives, prints, and literal slide shows wait for another day. The point is that photography today is not the same as photography in the prior century.
I take a lot less than I used to. I do try to take in the moment now.
My favorite shots are selfies… one with the two of us on the tarmac in front of the plane on arrival, the other on a random street.
I lost my wife to cancer, and regret that pre-kid, we took very few pictures relatively speaking, and I cherish the ones I have.
I suspect this is true for large scale exhibitionism and voyeurism (which is what this is, you are either a subject or the voyeur in these pictures, and if you are both, then you are narcissist). It's been going on for decades and it's heinous. The sheer scale of it will not allow our society to stand back and examine it. I consider all these things part of our current public crucifixions. And like litter, the harmless gum wrappers (the selfies, the "look where I am" photos, etc) have accumulated into a pure garbage world. That's the power of accumulation, and now we all live in Garbage Land.
Our society is nasty and has been for as long as we can remember. It takes constant reflection to clean the grime and address our hygiene, in all its wonderous forms (put the fucking camera down please).
Rorschach out.
-----
I had an idea for a small short story about the after life where God pulls you into a small video editing room and makes you sit through every frame of what your eyes recorded. It would take a lifetime to get through, and every time you are committing a sin he pauses the giant film and you feel the utter presence of judgement. This goes on for every frame until you are begging for mercy with a newfound realization of just how damning the concept of an "observer" is. Smile, someone's watching. Sure as hell aint going to fool him with our curated album (can't we just look at the good stuff?). We look at all of it or none of it. Which brings us to the final point - did you fool anyone?
Yes, yes there was. It was called "The Final Cut" from 2004. Just one more of many proofs of Robin Williams' stellar acting talent.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-6-the-life-review/i...
This podcast somewhat changed my life.
Totally checking out the podcast!
You can give it a try: there are very easy cameras!
The real problem is the price of film has skyrocketed. Since factories has been closing in the last ten years, the offer is low, and the demand is high... Even low quality Chinese stock is going for prices higher than professional rolls where 5 or 6 years ago.
All those compact cameras were still too large for that purpose, because as the saying goes: "The best camera is the one you always have on you"
After some searching I found an AWESOME gem of a little camera: The DxO One, a camera from back in 2016 from DxO, a company actually specialized in benchmarking camera-quality.
The device was built to be sold at ~700 USD, but flopped and can still be purchased as old-stock for ~110 USD now.
Size is fantastic, Pictures are great, I can only recommend it if someone just wants to capture a moment like it is without people getting pulled out of it.
The device is also somewhat hackable [0], as it's based on the Ambarella platform (RTOS and Linux).
I started collecting infos about it to preserve it [1], there's still alot of potential in this little gem.
[0]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki/1.-Hardware
[1]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki
When I was an exchange student I lived with other people and we went out partying every night, had a ton of fun, and still had a ton of fun rewatching pictures of the night the next day. This was a time where you'd have an actual camera. Sometimes me and friends from that era share back the pictures and have a laugh.
10 years report: Nowadays google photos regularly shows me those "memories" from years ago of my kids (turning 9 and 11), and about half the time I share them back with my wife and viceversa, and we get moved a bit or have a fun moment.
I really don't see why taking pictures would ruin an experience, unless you go _wildly_ overboard to prioritize the picture.
I'm not the kinda person to hold my camera up in the air filming a concert or whatever. But pictures of family! Pictures of random food I enjoyed or found cute. Pictures of random cute things in the store. Pictures of friends and cars and the beach and whatever else.
So much changes in the world. I love looking back at old pictures. During covid my mom and I would get together and dig through and find old stuff to post on facebook. It was a lot of fun.
I mean. I have pictures of random old cereal boxes I found amusing at the time. I have pictures I'm quite proud of, and others that just capture random happy moments.
I don't know what people mean about change? Things change a lot. People change, things change, the world changes. I have pictures of vegas casinos that were demolished years ago. Foods that aren't made anymore. I have a random picture of a quarter pounder meal from like 2005. Why not? XD
Those sorts of things cost me no time or effort really. Whipped out the camera real quick. Click. Put it away. Go back to enjoying my life. :)
Some people learned this lesson in the days of clunky, fragile, expensive cameras.
If you were carting around 5 lbs of DSLR camera and accessories, you weren't scrambling up that rock or going into the sea or getting on that rollercoaster.
1. Is it a picture someone else would’ve already taken?
2. Does it have our faces in it?
3. Will it have historical significance in 10 years time?
If all of it answers no, I rest easy knowing I missed nothing.
I mean, almost by definition there's basically no way of knowing this right?
A picture of a mountainside with nothing interesting going on other than nature might not be significant in 10 years, or maybe the entire landscape has transformed into something completely different.
I grew up in Bali, Indonesia. In the 90s, where I lived was nothing but lush jungle and beaches, with a few very small houses here and there dotting things. By the 2000s we had actual asphalt roads, and by the 2010s we had a full on highway on the south of the island. The stretch of land where I grew up is quite literally incomparable to what it looked like before despite my house not changing much, and it took roughly 10 years to reach that state. I would've loved if I had a camera back then to record the changes as they were happening, because you'd be amazed how quickly things become significant in some way, not to mention any potential memories of a place you think of fondly!
And why should it matter if someone else took a similar photo? it’s your photo you’re taking it like come on man am I taking crazy pills over here?
Speaking of which, I'd get even more use of these pictures if Google photo search was better. I'm looking forward to when some photo service is 1000x better for searching. Right now if I put I can put in "dog" and see that it's listing too many photos with no dog or pictures with "hot-dog". If I enter "black dog" it shows pictures with black color somewhere in the picture, like a shadow, and a dog. If I enter "dog with black hair" it says no results, even though I pictures of black labs. I tried "dog on beach". I know I have some. "dog in pool" got two results by I know a very dear picture of my younger sister with our dog in the pool and it didn't find it.
Looking forward to LLM/AI enhanced photo search so I can just say "show me photos of my sister in the pool with our dog" or "show me pictures of my trip to paris with my mom". As it, I have to find these through other means (remembeing the date, etc...)
I used to think the same. But in the end, this is not true for me personally. Having pictures of events or valuable moments does not add any (or much) value when remembering these situations. This of course may differ from person to person - but I guess we use to have this assumption from your quote as a given default. Overall I get the most "value" from focusing on situations when they are there, instead of wasting it by capturing them.
Just know that somewhere there's the pile of pictures of years past, in approximately chronological order.
You will not remember what you have forgotten. When you flip through the old photos you'll remember that you did much more than you can pull straight from memory.
This becomes more valuable as you get older, not only will you likely feel that your memory is becoming lower in resolution(my memory felt photographic until late 20s, the assumption it would always be that good turned out wrong) but you'll also have more bygone years to remember from as you get older.
But don't back up photos to an SSD that is unplugged from power.
I carry my camera 24/7 because I am a photographer who makes visual art and I might make art any time of any day. It isn’t about publishing or social capital or performance, it’s about making the best art I can for me and myself alone.
After searching alot, I found the long-discontinued DxO-One being a gem. A really nice blend of good camera-hardware and ultra-compact design, at a (now) crazy-low price. It almost has a analogue-camera feel to it, because you don't get to review the picture instantly but have to connect it to a phone or PC first.
It's a hardware designed for a ~700 USD pricetag. It flopped but it can still be purchased at ~110 USD as old stock, and that's hard to beat for a large-sensor (1" size) camera with a great lens (f/1.8 with mechanical iris).
It has a tiny display for rough configuration, linux OS, I started collecting data about it, because it also has quite some potential to be hacked and customized [0]
[0]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki
Yes. I take lots of photos and even I regret not having more, or videos of the kids learning to walk or learning to talk.
Also: memories are fleeting, very fast. I've been keeping a journal for five years now; I try to describe my day the day after at the latest, but when I miss a day or two it's incredibly hard to remember anything--anything!!-- about what I did 48 hours ago.
Some moments stay with you for the rest of your life, but most of the things that you do disappear from your mind extremely fast.
You will absolutely remember the birth of your first kid, with many details and the sweet and sour smell of hospital corridors, camera or not; but not everything is like that (actually, nothing is like that!)
Now the counter-argument is maybe that what you don't remember didn't deserve to be remembered; but I don't agree with that. Memories is the only thing that's truly ours.
Recently, I've found myself trending heavily towards candids/snapshots. Heck, I never asked for a Polaroid for Christmas to even further "dumb down" my photography. And all my 35mm film cameras are fixed-lens rangefinders (35 DC, 35 RC, and a Demi EE-17).
I still try to be thoughtful about what/when I''m shooting. Especially with my film cameras (film + processing isn't cheap). But, I spend less total time looking through the viewfinder.
I'm sure I did sneak a few candid pictures over the years but that leads to another issue a sea of unsorted pictures on who knows what media.
Also elderly people not good with technology, the cost of it, may be embarrassed to say often no longer take pictures.
For years, I made the conscious decision to focus entirely on enjoying moments instead of taking photos and recording videos. I now regret having been so strict about that.
Before I got married and settled down to work on building my family, I had so much fun as a single man. I traveled to so many places, enjoyed many concerts, went to lots of events/conferences, etc. Fast forward to now, I have nothing to show for most of it (other than maybe passport stamps and whatnot). Sometimes, I wish I could show my wife what it was like when I was in this or that country, but I can’t—it’s all just in my head!
My wife is pretty much the opposite of me when it comes to this. She has snapshots of most of her adult life. I came to truly appreciate her commitment to maintaining snapshots of our lives after we had our first child, because I noticed how quickly our little baby was growing and I constantly wanted to see how he looked and what he was doing a month ago, two months ago, etc. If it had been up to me, we likely would have very few of the photos and videos we have now.
I don't get this mode of thinking, that if you don't have pictures there is no proof you were somewhere. Are we trying to prove something to the jury or what?
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.
Like we didn't "yearn to capture" moments all the time, the way we do now, even in the 80s and 90s.
Even though regular and compact and even disposable cameras were available, few walked around with one or used within the year. At best somebody would take a camera on holiday or some major life event, which is like 1/100 of current use.
Therefore there are many events where I won't bring a camera. I'll experience it as it unfolds. It's more rewarding that way. In fact, many large events are already so well-covered by a professional camera crew -- why bother? I mean, I'll just go look it up later on Facebook anyway, right?
My current exception is astrophotography; firstly possible to see bodies that are much, much fainter with the assistance of the smartphone camera. The photos reveal details I could never detect with an unassisted eye. For example, last year's big comet: I stood at an intersection to sight it, and it was invisible until I pointed my camera in that direction. And astrophotography is a nice technical means of stargazing in specific ways with a specific field of view and live time constraints. I mean, if I really want to see a huge arbitrary starfield, there are plenty of apps that can simulate it for me. But if I curate my own star photographs, I can edit them, add notes, and share them around.
saw, not read, saw in movies, saw in photographs, saw in magazines. all that can fit into your SSD
So just make freaking daily journal. there is plenty of space. You will be surprised what everything you did forgot. you will be surprised how your brain worked few years back. etc etc
And computer can hold more and retrieve faster then any other mechanism.
Also most wealthy people i know have their own "CRM system", where they note contents of phone calls, meetings etc, it is even easier with current state of AI/ML transcription services. They note names of children, spouse of their business partners. Hobbies, life situations, birthdays.... and they WILL look you up, right before you enter their office for joint meeting, so they can have conversation with you...
However when i look back to the photos from the past im happy i took them because my memory fails me or sometimes skews things.
i am happy i have these photos.
The solution isn't to throw away our technology. It's to develop better habits and better relationships with what we use to enhance our lives. Because that's the point: to enhance our lives, not to diminish them. If you feel that your tech is diminishing your life, that's probably a sign that you need to re-examine how you use it. Throwing it away entirely is a wasteful response that might "fix" the diminishing effects, but will also deprive you of the enhancements.
Before smartphones (and/or decent camera phones), I used to carry a small point-and-shoot digital camera with me nearly everywhere. I loved having it with me, and friends always enjoyed when I'd share photos of moments where most people would never think to bring a camera to capture. Being able to ditch that camera and instead use an often-better smartphone camera has been so freeing and wonderful. But I don't live behind the screen of my phone; I snap photos quickly, and rarely take video (though lately I've been disappointed in the lack of video over the past decade, so I'm re-evaluating my stance there).
We can have a healthy relationship with our phones. Commercial interests of course want us to be glued to them 24/7, but that's not how it has to be.
(And I feel like the author of this piece maybe doesn't even disagree with me; he says he still takes snapshots on his phone in his hometown. He's more talking about the mindset he gets into when he has a "real" camera: one of detachment from his surroundings.)
I first visited Chicago in 2006 and took a bunch of pictures. It was all a blur to me.
Later I became a Chicago resident in 2017, and suddenly those pictures had a new meaning for me. I began to appreciate the details more. Some things didn't change (Metra tickets were clipped on top of the seat in 2006, and it still was in 2019). But the UChicago campus had evolved since my first visit in 2006. Evanston had also changed greatly.
As a new Chicagoan in 2017, it was cool for me look at 2006 pictures again with new eyes and new knowledge (e.g. I now knew the Chicago grid system, the dibs system, that deep dish isn't actually that deep, that the quality of Harolds' Chicken Shack is branch specific, etc.).
In fact, my primary regret is that I didn't take more photos - there are things I remember visiting, like a specific cafe, that I don't think I'll ever be able to locate again because my memory is far fuzzier than the photographic record.
While I often enjoy this experience, this just is not compatible with hanging out with people who aren’t into it. Your friends/partners will hate you. Your kids just will not stand for it in anyway.
I’ve gotten some photos I like doing this (when my friends/family were not present), but coming home from a family vacation, the photos I enjoy more are almost always the random snapshots of my kids taken in 2 seconds on my iPhone.
Now that cell phones exist and I got a super powerful camera in my pocket at all times. I really enjoy taking snapshots. Which for non-photographers are the lowest quality of photos that someone takes(1 out of 5). Occasionally, I'll do a trip to take a picture of something, but I tone down the seriousness of it and make sure that i'm not doing more than enjoying the moment and taking a snapshot. What I really missed was getting out there, it wasn't the photography. The photography just forced me to get out there.
I didn't account for my memory being shot even in my 30s. I would love to have a couple of photos or videos of some events, but I don't, and I can no longer remember what it was like at all.
I certainly enjoy having a few pictures and maybe a short video of a concert to help stimulate my brain later on when I’m reflecting on the experience. But then I put my phone down and enjoy myself, and to try to not be rude to anyone else (and I hold my camera no higher than my face).
I also think that with modern stabilization it’s easy to be taking decent videos while not being too focused on operating your camera.
The biggest challenge I have with this technological age is that even healthily moderate documentation becomes a data management nightmare. It feels like I’m constantly deleting irrelevant photos and pruning my library and it’s still far too big.
I did lug my DSLR into the delivery room, I got decent pictures without asking the medics to move, and I was present in the moment too. If anything, I wish someone took pictures of me that fine day.
My biggest challenge is making sure I don't lose it all due to corruption (local) or a shuttered service (cloud).
Ed: Do you own a video camera? Renee Madison: No. Fred hates them. Fred Madison: I like to remember things my own way. Ed: What do you mean by that? Fred Madison: How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.
I can't say I ever have. I think that different people are happy with different things (hot take, I know lol). That doesn't make the advice bullshit, it just means that it will be valuable for some and not sure others.
While I agree that everyone has different opinions, I do think the average person will appreciate being able to look back after so many years instead of having nothing due to repeating some mantra without thinking about it.
Note that the author is a photographer by trade.
so we did. and 30 seconds later we saw something incredible and I screamed "GETTTTTT THE CAAAAAMERAAAA!"
for the rest of our vacation, that was our tagline. You can't live outside the time you live in. Everything is a trade off. We enjoyed the trip a lot.