Get digit out and print those snaps

WHEN was the last time you took a photo? What was it of? Why did you take it? What do you intend to do with it?

Chances are it wasn’t long ago and, if the percentage of “non-published” photos in my camera roll are anything to go by, then odds are you haven’t done anything with it — and probably won’t.

There’s also a high chance your last photo is of a meal, a sunset, your dog or a selfie.

All lovely no doubt, but sentimental? Not likely.

If you haven’t guessed, I’ve been pondering whether photos are too plentiful to be meaningful in the digital age.

The thought occurred to me while at a funeral recently, moved by a black and white photo of this man as a schoolboy more than half a century ago. The significance of the photo seemed so much greater when you consider the technology — or lack of — at the time.

Only a tiny hole to preview the composition through and no chance to review, delete and retake if the lighting, focus or facial expressions were off. I don’t have as many photos of my childhood as those born 10 years after me would but I love that every one I do have is printed, and chronologically filed in hard copy albums I can flick through with my own kids one day. On the other hand, having a phone with camera capabilities readily available means not all photos are as staged as they once were. While the majority of my old pics involve me posing happily on my birthday or first day of school, kids of the smartphone era have many candidly captured milestones previous generations missed. You won’t hear today’s parents cry, “oh, I wish I had my camera”, as their child starts to smile/walk/ride — it’s in their hand. In my later years I, too, have been grateful to document overseas holidays using a camera phone but don’t reflect on the many hundreds of photos all that often because they remain on my laptop.

Earlier this year I lost precious, never-to-be-retaken photos from two weddings because they went to heaven with my non-backed up phone. The take home message: take less pictures, print more.

Sure social media will live like an online photo album but if that was all the images you or your family had to reflect on at the end of your life, could you say it was a true representation of everything you were, or just an airbrushed highlights reel of who you wanted people to think you were at the time?