Friday, October 31, 2008

What is it About a Camera?

So what is it about a camera? What is the attraction? Periodically one of my young children would ask for (and receive) a disposable camera for Christmas or a birthday. They would take incomprehensible and poorly lit pictures until the camera was out of film, and then return it to me to be developed. I would give them the developed pictures and they would look at them--perhaps once. And then they were done with them. Now that we've all gone digital the little kids will decide that they're dying to take pictures with my camera. I don't often let them, since it's a pretty expensive toy, but every now and then they catch me in a moment of mother-benevolentness and I agree. Off they go to take pictures of who knows what. Later when I download the pictures onto my computer I am interested to see what caught their eye this time. A poster on a wall, maybe a sibling making faces, or a tower made of blocks while watching general conference. Most pictures are dim and blurry because they often forget to use the flash. Almost all of their pictures baffle me. What inspired each shot? Were they as random as they seem?

But I also wonder the same things about myself. Why do I feel such an urge to capture the moments? I used to scrapbook and so I could say that I was taking pictures to make into scrapbooks. Now I make slideshows and know that I will need enough pictures to fill up 3.5 minutes of whatever song I have in mind. But aside from what--why? Why do I take pictures each fall of the beauty around me? I know that it happened last year, and will happen again next year. In fact I'm sure I've taken pictures of the same trees each year. And yet I keep doing it--trying to record for myself the contrast of the red-gold leaves and the still green leaves, all against an amazingly blue sky.

I will face this question again in a few months when Russ & I go to Hawaii. Our main purpose in taking this trip is to snorkel, snorkel, snorkel. As much as humanly possible. I know that we will want to get an underwater camera to take snorkeling with us--despite the fact that we have done this before, and so we know that pictures taken by an underwater camera are usually small and washed out--nothing like what you see through the lens of your snorkel mask. And yet we will probably still do it.

I wonder why. Is it to document where we've been? Create a legacy? Ensure that we will always be able to remember the beauty that we've seen?

On the other hand, I know some people take almost no pictures. And I wonder---how can they do that??

4 comments:

  1. Wow - that purple rose is amazing!

    I've reconciled myself to the fact that I just take A LOT of pictures. And you know what? I LOVE looking through the pictures I have from several years ago... even the ones I did not scrapbook or "do anything" with. Some days I just go through all the pics on my computer and it's such a neat thing to see.

    And whenever the girls steal the camera yo uknow what they take pictures of? Me. Usually doing something weird or making a funny face. It's so nice to get my camera back and see all this bizarre unflattering pictures of me....

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  2. Photography is good for the soul. It allows you to take a breath and capture it forever. You are able to catch a moment before that evil task master - Time - steals that moment forever. It is the critical second of calm in a world of fast forward an chaos. Kids know how important time is because (in your case) just 8 years ago they waited axiously to come to a world where time had meaning and that after years of time they could return to a timeless world. And in photography, you can create a timeless world. Time stops as the shutter flashes.

    In LDS 12-step we used to talk about taking another 24. no matter how much yesterday sucked, I have this 24 hours to make the best. With a camera, you have the ability to see the great in those 24 hours. By pushing the shutter button - you can remember the good of these 24 hours forever. No matter if there was a fight later or a lowering of one's standards and succumbing to an addictive power, you will always have that shing moment in the 24 hours. that moment with a rose; a sibling's goofy face; or a moment of te blocks all lining up and towering. The camera allows for those moments to be captured and to be therapy for the soul. photography is always good for the soul.

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  3. I agree with Sean...beautifully said...capturing the moments... good and bad! I LOVE pictures.. :)

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  4. Sean--I've thought about this a lot over the last day or so--particularly when I just *had* to take my camera on my walk this morning! And I think this is a beautiful thought! Thank you!

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