August 28th
On a whim today, I dusted off (literally) my old digital photo camera (Fuji Finepix SL). I think I haven’t used it in at least 3 years — the battery was dead, and it took two hours of charging to turn it on and get a memory card to work. I mean, why carry a camera when I always have on at least one cell phone with a pretty good in-built camera? It is a lot easier just to take out a cell phone from a pocket, and cell phone cameras have a very good resolution and a lot of automatic ways to make any photo look good and professional. Not to mention an ability to share this photo directly and immediately from your cell phone to others and all the social media. So, that’s what I’ve been doing (as the majority of people in the world do) — it is so easy and convenient.
On the other hand — it doesn’t have to be. I feel differently when holding an actual camera body in a hand. It makes me more focused on the particulars of what I see at the moment. It makes me concentrate more on what I want to encapsulate in a photo. I feel more “professional” I guess with a real camera in a hand. I am old enough to remember the time before digital cameras and photos and the ease of sharing them. Since I was a kid I used an analog film camera and I had to learn how to set up an analog camera before each shot (with the aperture and whatnot) and how to develop a film into a photograph. I also had learned NOT to waste a film (there were only 36 frames on an analog film roll) on unnecessary and frivolous photographs.
And I think that is fitting to my current life. I concentrate on the quality of single, important moments FOR ME. There is no need for me to just have many photos or posts on social media platforms, and so-called “friends” and “followers” there. I don’t need a multitude of actions every day to fill my time and be always productive with my free time (or to pretend so on social media to make others jealous? Inadequate? Or project a fictional perfect narrative?). I don’t know. I don’t know why so much of this life and what I see in others is shallow.
But, I got a new/old digital toy to play with! I even found a manual for this camera and I just realized that this camera has so many options, and it gives me so much control over how I want my photographs to look. And I know that I will be using it a lot now, I might even become one of those guys (you rarely see anymore) with a camera on my neck and a kit bag for lenses or a tripod. And I feel very good about it, almost like finding a long-lost friend.
