My Camera is my Best Friend [Take 2]

By now you should have read Culture Shock's post about avid photographers and the comments posted about it, as well as my own counter post in images.

So here's the other point of view. The one that no one wants to hear, understand or sympathise with. And no, it is not going to be a humourous one, so don't expect any smiles or laughs from this post.

I was raised by an avid photographer. My father buys a new camera once a year. Going anywhere with my father meant, having a tremendous amount of patience as he would give instructions, "No, stand right there!... Smile....No, don't smile.... Look at me!" Each photo would take between a minute to five minutes of composition before the photo was taken.

I H-A-T-E-D this!!! I hated standing still and looking at the camera. I hated the non-spontaneous photos. I hated the compositions that always had me or my mother or brother at the forefront of the photo. I still hate it.

Unfortunately, I inherited 99% of my father's genes, including the camera-freak gene. But having grown up hating the style of photographs my father took, I rebelled and I now take the same amount of photos without people, without asking anyone to stand still, and within one or two seconds. No waiting time for me to click the button. In most of my photos - people are either talking to someone else, or doing something. I don't ask anyone to smile.

80% of my photos are of things and places. The other 20% is a result of being the only one with a camera at an event that needs someone to take pictures (Company events, charity events, volunteer efforts, school events, etc). I don't particularly enjoy the 20% aspect of taking photos, but I realise it has brought a lot of joy to others, and that is why I do it. I've been thanked so many times, that I cannot be convinced by a couple of bleeding hearts who say "oh dear, you've captured my soul." So what if I have??? Sue me!

But here's why I take pictures of people, and I'll try not to go into all the sad stories of my life and just give you one example. I take photos at every family-in-law event (e.g. holidays, weddings, etc). No one else in my family-in-law had a camera 'til very recently. They got used to seeing me with a camera. A very sad ending to Christmas one year has taken away a dearly loved aunt who was seriously ill for two years. I'm not good at consolations. I'm not good with words of comfort. I'm not good at showing empathy. But I'm good at taking a lot of photographs. I looked through all my past photographs of the deceased, and found several good photographs. I put them in an envelope and sent them to her husband with a card wishing him good and happy memories. He called me as soon as he got them and could not stop thanking me, because these were the only photos of his beloved wife in recent years. Two years later, he still gives me a hug every time he sees me and thanks me for that gesture. It was something so small for me to do, yet meant the world to him to be able to look at his wife's face captured with a smile in these photos.

I have photos in my closet, inside boxes, of friends who have since passed on. Photos that bring back fond memories of good people that I will never see again. Photos that mean the world to me.

Yes, I have thousands and thousands of photos. Friends I haven't seen in years. Friends I see every year. It's a great feeling to look through these photos once in five years when I clean my closet. Friends mean the world to me. Photographs of them bring me what my memory is not capable of providing. I can recall moments captured in a photo a lot better than a moment that was never captured in a photo. Maybe it's the visual side of me or the ability to "re-review" that moment again and again. Some people like watching reruns on TV. Some like re-reading books. Some like watching Sports replays. I'm no different.

So those of you who are upset at someone taking your photo, you ought to see it as a compliment more than anything. Someone wants to remember you. Someone thinks that one day in future seeing your photo is going to bring a smile and a good memory. We're not doing this to cause you harm. We're not doing this to upset you. We're not doing this with an evil mind. We're doing it because that's how we capture our memories.

You can believe me that I wouldn't waste my time and money on taking a photo of someone I dislike or someone I don't care to remember in future. Heck, it pains me to do so when I attend an event and there's this someone I really can't stand but courtesy dictates that I must indeed take a photo of that person, too. It annoys me to no end when this person just walked in front of the subject that I really wanted to get a photo of! So there goes photo 077 of two nicely composed men, because the blonde *%tch walked in front of my camera.

As you understood by now, I take photos of almost everything. No, I don't carry the camera with me daily. I only take it with me when there's a scheduled event. Otherwise it stays home. But I do go out of my way to get photos of particular weather phenomena or natural phenomena that amaze me in the U.S. (e.g. The Cicadas appearing on ground after 17 years - shown in the photo from my previous post), simply because I send these photos to my family back in Israel. In return I get CD's filled with hundreds of photos of my family from the past month or so. It's the only way I can see my nephews and niece growing. I cherish each and every photo! It's as if I saw them once a month face to face.

Yes, when I travel it means 600+ photos, and possibly twenty of the same bison. But out of those twenty I have one awesome photo to show off to friends and family who've never seen a Bison before.

And out of the ten photos of the grass growing, there's one where you can actually see the grizly bear looking for food.

I take a ton of photos in the hopes that at least one of them will be awesome enough to show my friends. So I suppose in a round-about way, I've just considered you all my friends.

Yeah, I admit to taking a lot of photos. Yeah I admit I'm a camera freak. And yes, I do indeed carry a lot of things with me at all times, so adding a camera is not a big deal. I couldn't care less what anyone else thinks about seeing me with a backpack on me at all times.

I look like a geek.

I look like a freak.

But I'm always prepared

with a camera this week.

Culture Shock, ball's in your court.