 With my old camera, the potential pictures I wanted to take would be
carefully selected before I even pressed the shutter button. They
would be choreographed and posed. Everybody would be instructed to
smile, and I would be very put out if someone blinked in the
process.You couldn't tell for sure if someone had blinked,
though, because it didn't give you a sneak preview. However, if
there was a possibility of blinkage, you had to take another shot
because you might never have that particular assemblage of people in
that particular venue ever again. A picture for posterity without
blinks is a must.
(That makes at least two verbs that I have turned into nouns. My
English teachers would be expiring from embarrassment.)
Enter the digital camera. Most cell phones even have the ability
to take pictures. This brought a flurry of picture-taking to the
forefront of American culture.
Now, I might take a photograph for the sole purpose of
remembering how to use that function on my cell phone.
We'll take a picture of a total stranger so that we can show our
hairdresser how we want our hair styled.
We'll take a picture of a butterfly whose fluttering has taken it
within our personal orbit, because, well, we may never see another
butterfly again.
I took a picture of my stomach after I removed a band-aid and it
ripped off a layer of skin with it. Why would someone take a picture
of that? I guess I thought I would need proof if someone didn't
believe me. Come to think of it, if my friends wouldn't believe a
story like that, I probably need to get some new friends.
I have a picture of my youngest son's ostrich egg after he ran
into a metal pole. It wasn't a goose egg. That's normal. This was an
ostrich egg! ... and it deserved to be photographed!
[to top of second column] |
 We take pictures of birthday cakes as well as the candle-blower,
and our digital cameras are so good, we can see the spit as it hits
the cake. Clearly, there are some things we'd rather not see so
clearly.
We take pictures of engagement and wedding rings, as if we'll
never see those again.
We take pictures of people taking pictures of us.
I even have pictures on my camera that are unrecognizable.
I think my camera may have been taking unauthorized pictures of
the inside of my purse.
A friend of mine made some tiny braided pastries called
koeksisters and told me to take some home to my husband. My husband
took one out of the bag and saw that part of a braid had come undone
before frying and was now sticking out the middle of it. He took a
picture of it so that he could e-mail it to my friend with a caption
that read, "This looks more like a koekbrother."
Taking pictures of random pastries is definitely not something
that would have been economically feasible before digital cameras.
We would have told the story of the gender-bending pastry, but a
picture is always worth a thousand words.
We still tell stories today, but if you didn't take a picture to
back up your words, your listener might not believe you, simply
because there is no longer any excuse for not taking the picture.
[By LAURA SNYDER]
Laura Snyder is a nationally syndicated columnist,
author and speaker. You can reach her at
lsnyder@lauraonlife.com
or visit www.lauraonlife.com
for more info.
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