Cameras are literally everywhere at the moment. If we don’t own a digital camera, we have one on hand built into our phone. And the amount of pictures we can take has changed too. We can buy memory cards with several gig of memory that allow us to take thousands of photos, should we be so inclined.
The trouble is, with the amount of cameras around and their ease of use, most people don’t exercise restraint any more. They just point their phone and click, safe in the knowledge it will not cost them extra on their O2 or Orange contracts. They seize every opportunity or simply take photos for the sake of it.
As much as digital photography has revolutionized the ‘Kodak moment’, in a way it might have been better back in the days when there was only a certain amount of film available on a cartridge. You had to choose wisely which moments you decided to capture. And this thought behind the action made them more personal. When you next celebrate a special occasion with your friends, go out on the town with the girls or get together with your extended family, try and hold back on the photography. Not indefinitely. Just long enough that you can really think about what pictures you want to take. Deliberate over where it ought be taken, who should be in it and why. The phrase ‘less is more’ counts with photography too.
This is not to say that spontaneity is a bad thing. On the contrary, the point-and-click method can work wonders. However, excessive clicking amounts to hundreds of photos that are too blurry, not in focus, have bad lighting or show someone in an unflattering way. And you end up discarding them without a second thought anyway.
The point is, we appear to be losing the technique behind the perfect photo. And that is a shame.
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