Taking Photos
A couple of times a year, Mrs P asks me to copy onto her laptop, all the pictures that I’ve taken over recent months, as well as those that have been shared with us via WhatsApp. She then diligently whittles them down into a manageable amount which we then print off and put in our photo album. Yes we’re of the generation that still likes to print off hard copies of photos and from time to time look at them nostalgically. We have several albums with photographs in chronological order and numerous frames placed around the house, filled with pictures of family. The bulk of the photos are 4x6 inches (10x15 cm). We use an online photo printing service for the majority of our pictures and visit a local store with a self-service photographic department to print off specific pictures for bespoke frames. The original photos, now neatly organised, are backed up and archived.
Photography and the Camp Snap
Like most children in the seventies, I was introduced to photography through the medium of “holiday snaps”. I was given a basic camera that used 110 film cartridges as a birthday present and quickly grew to love the uncomplicated nature of the device. You just looked through the basic viewfinder and pressed the shutter button. It really didn’t require much more thought than that. Once you had used your film, you had the additional fun of sending it off to be developed and either collecting your photos a few days later, or having them sent via the post. Like most hobbies, my interest led to further research and I quickly became aware that photography was a far more complex and formal undertaking. One that was expensive and riddled with snobbery. And so just like my youthful flirtation with painting, the technicalities and accepted protocols associated with photography ultimately killed my interest.