Day 6: Photos

"A picture is worth 1,000 words" but how much are 1,000 pictures worth? Probably more than 1,000 captions I would venture to guess. 
Today at the store I was 'window shopping' for a digital SLR camera- which I might possibly buy before I head to Italy. I kept thinking about how much photography has changed, even since I left High School. When I got home I pulled out my old SLR camera that uses... film! It was crazy to think that the camera my Mom had spent so much money on was so outdated now. There was also an undeveloped roll of film in there which I intend to retrieve once I get new batteries to turn the thing on. I then went down another photo detour looking at my pictures of my trip to Europe in 2004 and kept thinking how much cooler it would have been had I owned a digital camera. Next time!


With all this advancement of photography and movement to all digital came the ability to share all of it, mostly due I believe to Facebook. I know there were some websites where you can email a link and share photo albums, but this is so different. People post all sorts of photos- from the meaningful to the unnecessarily ridiculous. I have had my fair share of being tagged in both sorts. 
I love pictures and can remember when it was the most exciting thing in the world to get your set of photos printed and share them the next day with all your friends in your cute little album you bought from old navy. Now it's so instantaneous. Take a photo and post it online, no wait time! And the amount of photos that site must have in total has got to be out of this world. I have contributed a large amount of photos which are no longer private or really even mine. They belong to the world and to all my friends whom I let see view, comment on, and even 'like' them if they so choose. It's a great way to share moments with everyone, but it's probably safe to say that photos aren't as appreciated. 
Thinking back way way before photos- people would spend an unimaginable amount of time posing to be painted or pay all kinds of money to own a family portrait. Things like that were precious and collections of photographs were treasured. It's become another easily accessed commodity that we can replicate and store in a file on a computer. I have so many less prints than I used to. However, I can't imagine making prints of some of the stupid stuff I thought was worthy of a photo. I bet at the time it told a story or was an accident, but there tends to be more silliness than cherished photos out there. I think it takes away a bit of the special feeling of a memory remembered from a simple photograph. We just flip through the album online like it's another button to click. 
Digital is great and so much easier to manage, but I hope that we haven't lost meaning and memory in all these photo albums, profile pictures, and tagging of friends.