No trendy clothes or expensive vodka, the pics I have are snapshots of real life
I’VE become a keen photographer in the last few months but not on any sort of level which involves fancy cameras or a lens costing the same as a family car.
I’m always impressed by the photos taken by professionals in clubs or weddings and the like – but it’s just never been me.
The pictures on my camera roll are mainly food from nice restaurants or candid snaps in the studio or at home.
Most never see the light of day, which is what makes them all the more special because, when I compare them to the stuff you see on my Instagram profile, I realise these pictures are truly the story of my life. I bet yours are as well.
Having managed to blag a radio show when I was 16, I never went to university but my best friends did and, when you’re from the smaller towns in Scotland, this means a huge life change, invariably ending up in student halls.
If you’ve ever stayed in one, I can almost guarantee your wall featured at least one collage full of pictures you had to collect from Boots. These wouldn’t make it near your timeline these days.
The last thing we were considering was how we’d look to the masses the next day. But these pictures all captured hallowed moments in time and they are all 100 per cent real life.
Imagine being pulled aside in a club in your early 20s and being asked to pose for a picture that would be on a billboard on the High Street the next day? Because that’s a comparable audience size to those in your social media circles and the thought of this would’ve had us all suddenly self-aware and we’d have had much less fun as a result. I remember how furious Mum was when she agreed to collect my holiday pics (and, handing over the cash) after a holiday to Ibiza with the boys at the end of school. “£70 to see that rubbish? You all looked a disgrace”.
She was right. Because these pictpictures all told storstories.
AAs opposed to the mmajority of pictupictures which peoppeople share these days.
ThThose designed purely for people to zoom in and check the clothes, make-up or what designer brand of vodka can be seen sitting on the table in the VIP booth they’ve shelled out a small fortune for. There’s not much I could add here that will make me sound any more of a pensioner but I’m glad I had those times – I hope you did too.
I’ve become more conscious of taking pictures these days, because I know I’ll flick through them on a train journey from time to time.
And they’ll document the true reality of life in that moment – each one of the snaps being worth a hundred posed pictures on beaches or nightclub dancefloors.
The last thing we’d consider was how we’d look to the masses the next day