A picture is worth a thousand words. Probably that’s why, with the advent of digi cams and mobile phone cameras, we are always looking for moments that can be captured. Our state of mind, our lifestyle, our stage in life… just about everything is stored in the My Pictures folder of our PC’s. Or better still, in our photo albums in FB!
While on my honeymoon, I picked up dresses that would picture well. I practiced three kinds of smile for my wedding. One with a wide toothy smile that said ‘I’m on top of the world’, second a calmer smile that said ‘I’m glad you came’ and the third, the most fake, ‘I’m shy coz I’m the bride’! All for the 8 kg album that occupies a large part of my wardrobe now.
That’s okay for everyone does that. Wedding happens once in a lifetime. But these days, we click not for the memory, but for our Facebook/Orkut profile. The most boring are those who hardly ever change their mug shots! Like my husband, he hates being clicked. He mastered the art of faking a picture-perfect smile on our wedding. The video, however, captured his act and the audience could not help but laugh. Anyway, his profile pic on FB is almost 1.5 years old. Really, he needs to get a life!
Ha, that’s what the digital age has done to us. I have what, just about a 100 photographs of the first 18 years of my life. My niece, who is 3 years old, has 100 for every 3 months of her life. And don’t even get me started on the number of videos in which we capture her every move! She is least interested. And so we have to take atleast 10 pics on the same location so that the picture is perfect.
There was a time when a 36 film roll would finish only after a year of grabbing birthdays, anniversaries, diwali, holi, rakhi, school fests and other occasions. It got us excited. I went to this studio just because the guy there was cute. And now, it’s been quite sometime since I’ve actually printed a snap.
Don’t get me wrong, I give my all for saying cheese and getting clicked. In fact I am the one who’s clicking all the time. But sometimes we get so involved in seizing the moment for the future, that the present is lost. Sometimes we overdo it so much that the picture hardly speaks a few words. And well, you know it’s a mania when you do a fun activity ‘coz it would picture well and not capture it ‘coz it was fun.
It’s too soon to say if we would relish these photographs like we relish the older ones when technology was sluggish. What we do know is that anything in excess is not good. And so, moral of the whole jabbering, say cheese, but not always with an intention to get framed!
I know Nisha what a pitcure can mean when it is taken at the right time, and the importance it can have for years to come. If you recall, I used to be unofficial photographer of the placement commitee at JIM as well. It was my love for photography that I spent my entire 1st salary on the camera phone that I still use.
ReplyDeleteBut lately, I have little use for it. I discovered, just like you that even after clicking a dozen pics of the same event and it doesn't even matter a week later.
P.S. I searched for Teeth that Sparkle and your blog was on top of the list, I guess that makes you a writer after all these years.
Hope is the second most powerful force in the world, next to belief.
ReplyDelete@jatin: thankyou for stopping by... and as for pictures...its really abt the quality and not quantity. even im in its trap! this post was a lot abt what my hubby thinks... im trying to be like him!hehe
ReplyDelete@vicky: ????
I so relate to this Nisha. Infact was planning to write a post on this. This whole blogging,FB,Orkut has lead to so much narcissism. I catch myslef thinking I need a new outfit coz I have been already photographed in the others. Shallow actually.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes a waste of time in a way...in capturing the moment we lose the bigger picture.