Photographs [NOT 28/4/23]

28/4/23 blue dogcollar 17
An Amateur Photographer / ca. 1907 / George W. Spencer / source: https://lccn.loc.gov/2012645705

Are You A Taker?

A couple of days ago Luigi posted some fun pix of his trip to Chicago. You may have seen a photo or two I’ve posted here. Shaq is a serious camera guy who has posted cool shots. We’ve had a bunch of furball photos. And the FYCE crew has posted plenty of pictures of cheese crusted things.

So let’s talk photography!

I Am A Photojournalist / Thomas W. Parker / ca. 1946 / Source: National Archives

Phone cameras have gotten really good, and even cheap phones can take excellent shots. Are you finding yourself taking lots of pictures over the past few years? And if so, what subjects?

French photographer in old Yokohama. Japan / ca. 1860 / Utagawa, Yoshikazu / source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2008680262/.

Do you take selfies and use a dreaded selfie stick? Do you go to restaurants and take pictures of your plates? Are you more of a pet photo person?

Or maybe you use your phone for more utilitarian purposes, like taking a photo of a plumbing part to help you buy a replacement at the home store. Or you take a photo of the place where you parked so you can find your car after dinner and a movie.

Or maybe you don’t bother at all, and count on everyone else who takes pictures to share with you. Do you still own and use a camera? Do you rebel against the entire phenomenon?

Whatever you do, share, Deadsplinteranseladamses! Tell us how you photo, or don’t.

avataravataravataravataravataravatar

17 Comments

  3. Sadly, I am a confirmed Luddite who has a 12-year-old (I’m guessing, I can’t remember exactly when I got it) Android bought under duress that still works for what I need it to but the camera and video function really doesn’t. Or not very well. I’ve tried taking photos with it but everything comes out looking like blurry MGM-colorized surveillance photos. It’s a very weird effect and I could probably mount my own exhibition at a SoHo gallery, like Hunter Biden. WHICH, by the way, I find some of his work actually quite beautiful, but I’m not ready to cough up 250K for one of them because I have no business before the Federal government.

    Better Half, on the other hand, always has the latest iPhone but he’s the world’s worst photographer, so his images are always shot the wrong way, portrait rather than landscape or vice versa, too close or too far away, weird cropping so half a head is cut off, etc. They are high-quality, though, for what they are.

    I have a cousin who is the self-appointed family genealogist and she, at 75, is like the Ansel Adams of our family. With her iPhone she takes these amazing photos at our ritual family get-togethers and everyone looks great, smiling, happy, candids of casual interactions. She really has a gift. When I’m dead and biographers come clamoring to write about me I hope photos from her digital archive will form the interstitial inserts.

    • I’m generally a luddite as far as my phone. I don’t play games, avoid video calls, and really hate QR codes — I hate restaurants that use them for menus.

      But I have to admit when I got around to upgrading my phone at last that I really appreciated the functional camera.

  4. I did ye olde 35 mm photography in high school, including developing black and white film. I don’t know what chemicals they treated our wool uniform skirts with, but for 3 years I often just grabbed a section of my kilt when I spilled darkroom chemicals to wipe it up. One time I sliced open my thumb using a can opener to pry open a film cannister and didn’t realize it until I splashed developer on my hands during the process and was like wow that burns. Anyways, that left a discolored wound scar thing for weeks, but my uniform skirt? No damage whatsoever.

    • I found out not too long ago that wool is remarkably heat resistant. As in, pro bbq ers use them to wrap smokers as insulation and it is used for fire blankets. So it kind of makes sense that skirts would shrug off harsh chemicals.

        • Some people may appreciate stain resistance in school uniforms, especially if they are able to afford only a limited number of uniforms and don’t have access to laundry at home, DeWitt says. But schools could still help by avoiding making white shirts part of uniform requirements, instead opting for something less likely to show stains, like navy blue, Venier says.

          Stain resistants are responsible? I’m not sure I see the point. There’s never been a stain resistant chemical that can stop the terrors of first grade art class.

          I definitely agree with that quote that uniforms should just be dark colors and schools need to look the other way at food, ink and paint stains.

          • Oh no that’s unacceptable, it can’t be dark colors. You need different plaid patterns for all the uniforms so that you won’t accidentally confuse the kids from St Margaret Mary Alacoque with St Gabriel’s with CPOP (Christ Prince of Peace) etc etc. Heaven forbid your precious angel child look like all the other schoolchildren across the archdiocese.

    • Ohmigawd, I did, too! (I even took a distance learning class to satisfy one of my high school grad requirements so that I could take Photo II my senior year.) Of course, my parents had just put my two sisters through college, and the Church’s emerging “pro-life” ethos was the straw that broke the back of the camel’s back that was my mom’s Catholic tendencies (while I’d only ever really “audited”  it all myself), so it was jeans instead of wool skirts for me.

  7. Sorry, late to the game.  My dad was a pro photographer on the side so I grew up with a darkroom in the house.  I was in & out of being into it until after high school a few of me & my friends would take pictures of each other surfing.  Eventually we all got obsessed but unfortunately for me they made it a full time job &  are now super successful in photography & film.  I didn’t have that option or wasn’t willing to quit a good paying job to take the risk.  I have had a semi-successful career in photography & video but made the choice to focus on being a dad & make my wife’s business successful.  Sometimes I have regrets or what could have been thoughts but mostly I am okay with the choices I made.

Leave a Reply