Last week, I went to a funeral. As is common these days, the family had a photo gallery on their son’s online obituary page. The pictures covered almost the last half of their son’s life.
Many of the photos were either out-of-focus, badly exposed, had heads partially cut off, or the boy was so far in the background he was barely visible. Most of the recent photos appeared to have been shot with a cell phone due to the obvious low resolution and low quality.
Pictures are important, especially personal pictures.
If you’re a parent with young children, please buy a real camera and learn how to use it.
Sure, a cell phone camera is convenient and easy to use. But despite what cell phone manufacturers say, a cell phone is no comparison to a true camera. While it’s better than nothing, a cell phone camera is about compromise. A full-time camera is about creating lasting memories.
Some camera stores and photo clubs offer how-to lessons so you can learn to better use your camera. There are also lots of books and online tutorials available. Get past the point-and-shoot stage and you’ll be amazed at what can be done with even the lowest priced camera.
Get lots of your pictures printed. It’s not an option! The cost of prints today is the lowest it’s been in decades. You’ll never regret it. No one ever says, “we have too many family photos.”
Back up your digital images in triplicate. Don’t rely solely on a single hard drive, memory card, USB flash drive or cloud service.
Family photography is not just for birthdays and special events. Any day can be a good day for taking pictures of your children. If your kids are embarrassed by you taking pictures of them, tough. They’ll thank you later.
We can’t predict the future so we use photography to preserve the present.
The photo replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can’t visualize them anymore, you only remember them through their pictures.
– Christian Boltanski, photographer
