As the year draws to a close, I’m going through all my old photos, i.e. junk, in hopes of getting back precious gigabytes and sending all these awful attempts at photographic art into the digital atom smasher.
Most of my digital photos pretty much picked up a ludicrous pace in 2002 and 2003. That was T-E-N years ago. My how time flies. If I were to graph out the memory needed to store each year, it goes from about 10 Gigs in 2003 to more recently, 1 TB for 2012 alone. Which is utterly ridiculous when you think about it. (The random digital video files contributed to that digital glut as well, but thank goodness for mp4 compression) 2003…hard to believe it was a decade ago, back when the revamped Nissan 350Z was launched, and lovely Korean import models roamed the earth. 😉
It’s hard being an early adopter/trendsetter, that just means you are the first to be uncool when it all comes crashing down. I mean that in a photography/technology sense. First to get a digital camera? Yep, that was me. First to get a cell phone that you could put pictures on for caller id? Yep, spent a day converting those files. First to use a digital camera to take pictures of what I ate? Yep, a decade ago before the social sites. Random photos standing next to girls I didn’t even know or cars I didn’t even own? Yep, guilty as charged. So you see, all this has come before and will continue to be again. Maybe not for me anymore though, which I’ll get to in a bit. As a self proclaimed artist and creative person, I don’t know if there’s anything worse than realizing all your old work is junk and forgettable garbage. It’s really disheartening. I know you can’t grow unless you improve, but this is just the lifelong battle painters, musicians, and poets struggle with. At least I had some wisdom in me to shoot some moments with film. Looking back, they do have a timeless feel about them, instead of the soulless digital images that are beginning to look McDigital.
That being said, most of the ease in our world is due to the digital revolution on all fronts. I wouldn’t be plugging away at this site all this time if it wasn’t for that. We now live in an age where you are encouraged to not delete anything. Just let it pile up and buy more storage space or let the various sites take care of it. Everything from good memories to inane chatter. I’m of the strong opinion that someone needs to save us from all that. Maybe it’s the younger generation. Maybe they’ll all get tired of this soon and actually step out into the sun and fix the world. Instead of ogling over a vintage photo of clouds, perhaps they’ll marvel at the idea that there are such amazing things as clouds, or dinosaurs, or alternate dimensions.
I was never one to believe that life switches gears at the flip of the calendar, which ever one you follow. The photos I took ten years ago, just horribly inept hold down the button garbage type of photography, of just random shots that seemed to caused more harm to the universe by even attempting it. But we still did it. Because it was new, novel, cool, experimental, fun, just something to help the days go by quicker and easier. For many generations, photos were stored on the wall or in a box. Nowadays no one cares, and everyone has become the shutterbug that people like me to put into motion. Not saying that as a pat on the back for me, no, more of a kick in the behind, to get off that crowded ship and find something else to do.
Some of the best moments in my life from the last couple of years…no camera, no updating, no need to let anyone else know, those are the times of true wealth and contentment. I’m just glad that I still have the mental faculties to write about it, recall it without a photograph.
…But most everyone sees me as a visual photo person, so here’s a recap of 2012 in easy to digest photos. These I would consider “B” photos though, the ones I forget about in the infinite grid of thumbnails. In a few year’s time I wonder if I’ll look back on these with a “Meh” attitude as well, and just vaporize it all with a key stroke. Let’s hope not, because if so, we’re all just moving dirt around. I hope at least some of the pictures have a real type of emotion to them. If only a fraction of the ones we keep to ourselves. Thanks everyone, see you out there…
