Hopefully you are enjoying the tips on taking better pictures, ideas for what to do with them once you take them and even the ways you should protect & back up your digital images. Today’s post will be slightly different but just as applicable to anyone who takes pictures whether it’s with a high-end camera, a portable point & shoot or even your cell phone. Today, I want you to think, WHY do I take pictures?
Do you take them to preserve a memory? Maybe it’s to be able to come back to that moment in time over and over again. Maybe you don’t consciously think about it but there is a reason you are taking that photo (unless of course you are a professional, then it’s because you were hired and it’s your livelihood!).
I’m asking you to ponder this for a moment because you may just fall into the HUGE percentage of the population that takes photos and then does absolutely nothing with them! I hope not, but if you are, I want you to really think about this.
Time is precious – there is a finite amount that each of us gets and the problem is that we don’t know when that time will be cut short. A friend of mine recently lost her husband after only 20 years of marriage. I cannot possibly understand the loss she is experiencing. It makes me think of all the moments my husband and I have shared and how many more we have yet to share. Those moments are and will be captured in our photos. But the photos come alive when we can truly relive them with the stories. Our memories fade, even with photos; details are lost to most of us. But by writing the stories that go with our pictures they become vivid memories again.
I encourage you today to think of an event that you have photos from that you treasure the most and go back and read my earlier post about what kind of album you could create – just click here. We don’t know when our finite period of time will end or when it will end for that of a loved one. I also know that for me, personally that if I already had completed albums with stories, that those photo albums & photo books would be of comfort to me. However, if I only had pictures, I can’t imagine being ready to tackle turning them into albums for a long time. And what if it was my time to be cut short? How would my family find comfort without those completed albums and stories of our family? I encourage you to make time today to do something with your photos.
Share your thoughts here by submitting a comment. Why do you take pictures? Are they in some sort of album or are they in boxes or on your computer? Would you find comfort in being able to look at a completed album of a loved one you recently lost?
Harriette,
I understand your question. I have lots of photographs that are all packed up. I have looked at them a couple of times, shared them a couple of times, but most around the time they were taken.
BUT things have changed. Technology for example. The Sharing of the pictures are no long an issue. Development, Processing, and trying to figure out how to store them are a thing of the past.
With digital technology has opened up a wide range of options. I have gotten the past 10 years of my photographs on my computer and can now share them, EASILY, as I want or need. Don’t have to go looking for them, don’t have to put them in a physical album, don’t have to get a projector, etc.
It’s freeing to capture ‘the moment’ and share it freely, if I want.
Also, I include my photos in my back up plan for my computer.
Russ
Russ,
It is fantastic that you have your photos in your back up plan and can find them when you want them! You are many steps ahead of most people.
What I want everyone to think about is can someone look at your photos without you physically being there and know what’s going on? When you share the pictures you likely include a caption or story, right? Does the way you store your photos on your computer and in your back up plan allow you to tell the story (the full one) or even some captions with the photo? Pictures are fantastic and many say they are worth a thousand words but often others don’t know which 1,000 words.