I spent – well, my computer spent – half the evening doing registry cleanup and optimization on my computer, with the plan to get some time in to go through some photos from back in December. I still have yet to go through all the photos I took for my son Roman’s birthday party and for some reason, Photoshop Elements has decided this evening to not cooperate with me, so maybe tonight isn’t the night. The photos from his superhero-bonanza of a birthday will just have to wait; I just particularly want to share all the color and fun with family (in England); I hate that they miss our family celebrations here but I’m grateful that I can record it all with my camera and that the web makes it so easy to share memories.
I think many of us have forgotten what it was like back when we printed out photos and actually mailed them to family and friends. We share ourselves in such a different way these days…but I still love to actually feel real photographs in my hands. All that picture-taking with the infinite possibilities of digital photography make the process so different from analog; I float between digital and analog formats because the satisfaction that comes with each process is so different. My mum is requesting I catch up with sending ‘real’ photos to her from last year…isn’t that what makes the photo-taking so worthwhile? Isn’t it more satisfying to actually have a real copy of the photograph in your hands? There is something so special about getting a roll of film developed and not being completely sure what it is you will see once you get your prints back.
I am very behind on printing out photos for my own albums and I am vowing to myself that those memories get printed very soon. Kids especially love to look at themselves in photos; it was seeing my father’s constant photo-taking and the many albums he filled with photos from our childhood in Hong Kong that likely first inspired me to explore the medium myself. I also worry that should my memory fail one day, that if I don’t have real photos, those moments in time will fade too. Photos play a central role in our memory-keeping…the connection fascinates me.
I also didn’t get cat photos done today because of one thing or another; tomorrow I have every intention of getting photos at the Lunar New Year festivities and hopefully some of my feline friends. Hoping for less dashed plans this week; I have lots I want to get done!
Leaving you with a sunset photo from the other day; I enjoy getting the view of the Space Needle from a moving car on the freeway…as a passenger…
We do not remember days; we remember moments. ~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand
xo ~ K
K.A.Moore Photography 
Reblogged this on FULLSTOP(.).
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Thank you for the reblog!!
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I did not read anything ;s i just kept going back to the picture of the cake and the children… that in itself tells such a story excellent photo….!
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Thanks for checking out my blog! Many more from that party, but I love that moment. He was thrilled to have his superhero party but I’m kind of up to my eyeballs in superheroes now… The previous year it was a ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ party; that was fun to prepare for too. It all makes for great photo opps!
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Super blog! What you wrote about how special it is when you have a roll of film developed and you are not sure what you will get back, it’s so true. Even though the digital stuff is very cool and has been quite an advancement, back when there was no digital camera and we had a roll of 24 in our cameras, we really had to think about what we thought worthwhile to shoot. I can remember feeling like if a picture came out not to my liking, it was a “wasted” picture–the money had been spent, the excitement of what had been expected crushed, and sometimes the picture had been taken of a fleeting moment on a vacation somewhere afar or at some special event and the option to recapture the image the way it had been hoped was no longer available. But didn’t you love the times when you got back something way better than expected?
These days I feel like I take pictures of far too much with my iPhone. It actually overwhelms me to look at the folder I have on my laptop named “sort” because there are literally thousands of pictures to sort through and organize. And I hate to delete any since I feel like I am deleting glimpses into my past. That folder does not have the special feeling to it that my old box of photos has. Yet it is really nice to be able to send photos from a cellphone through the ether to someone else across the globe within seconds. I always wonder what someone from 100 years ago would think about this if they popped into our time right now. They would probably think it is magic.
Heck, I still do.
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These days I do still enjoy running film through my several film cameras; I have a Diana F+ toy camera that I love (check out the Lomo movement on Lomography.com), and belong to a local photo group (Seattle Lomo Adventurers Club – SLAC!) where we all get together and convene on Facebook for all sorts of film photography fun. There’s definitely an analog movement going on. I’ve picked several cool old cameras online and at yard sales for super cheap; they’re a lot of fun to experiment with.
At the end of the day though, regardless the equipment, a great photo still boils down to the eye of the photographer, working with light and exposure, and great composition. And other people connecting with your work. I think what digital has done though, while it gives us the freedom to take countless photos and repair any mistakes quite easily, many of us take so many photos that they become meaningless, lost in the depths of our computers and cyberspace, and they can steal so much time (on the computer).
In some ways it cheapens the experience; EVERYone has a camera of some sort, and there are billions of photos floating around out there, and copyright issues are huge. I think analog still deserves its rightful place in the photographic world; I don’t agree that analog is dead, and it sets a great foundation for working with digital. Just wish it were cheaper; I have several rolls of film I need to go develop right now…
Back when I used to work on movies, it felt as though a far greater attention to detail was paid when working with film (as opposed to shooting on video). Nothing quite like a shoot with 35mm film…
And look at all the camera apps and editing programs where you can create a film look!!
We all like the look that only film has.
So go run some film through a camera today!! I think it’s good for the photographic soul 🙂
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My husband bought a Pentax Spotmatic years and years ago…I hate to say how many. I LOVED that camera….now in the hands of our son (lives in Bothell). Some of my favorite photos were shot with that camera – 2X telephoto lens on a sunny day. We lived in Washington for 25 years…am headed that way in a couple of weeks for a visit…hoping for the nice weather continues for a while…although the clouds never really bothered me.
Great photos, btw.
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