Pictures from the Past

    Photos record a moment in time, something to be reflected on later to bring back a pleasant memory.  The invention of digital photography has made photographers out of all of us.  I've noticed that with digital photography available on smart phones people have really gone crazy taking photos.  We take photos everyday on any subject some of which I'd rather not see and why so many photos of your evening meal?  Many shots are selfies and people are always posing like they've just walked down the red carpet or have been nominated for some award.  That's not necessarily a bad thing but what I miss are the candid shots when a person is just being their self.

     I know taking family photos at holidays or other occasions are awkward.  It seems like you never know what to do with your hands or how long to hold a smile so acting goofy seems to be the obvious choice.  With selfies, red carpet posing has replaced the goofy look. Our family is kind of goofy so the red carpet pose doesn't seem to fit us.

     When I look at old pictures I laugh at the goofy ones and some of those were candid shots.  I wonder how people will react in future years when they pull a shoebox of pictures out of the hall closet to look at.  Oh! Wait, no one prints pictures anymore, maybe they will pull the old iPad out of a shoebox and look at those old digital photos.  That seems a little unlikely to me, so with urging from my wife (Mimi) we print a lot of our digital photos, the scenic vacation pictures and the goofy family photos.

     What will happen to the digital photos when a new format comes along and we can no longer access them?  I have a lot of digital photos stored on CD's but CD drives are becoming a thing of the past.  Some people store them in the cloud, but I'm not really sure where the cloud is or how it really works.  Seth Meyers recently questioned how safe the cloud really is.  "It's not like it's called a vault. It's named after something you can put your hand through."  Good point, I would prefer to store my photos in a shoebox, thank you very much.  "Just Saying...."