A Call for Less Photos

on Jul 30, 2011

The cameras – they are everywhere. Photos are being snapped at a pretty wild rate, and are often shuttled online. We see something interesting – out comes the camera. We attend some event – big or small, a special occasion or a weekly happening – and we take photos. Lots of them.

But is preserving every moment in digital form so important? Oftentimes, we focus so much on capturing the moment, that we miss it entirely – or take away from the experience of it. Or we disrupt the conversation of two individuals forging a connection, to make a record of their shared experience.

The high capacity of the digital camera has given us the wonderful ability to take photos without concern of waste. But is this always so much a good thing? It can very easily scramble the signal-to-noise ratio. That is, photos are taken with less care. The truly inspirational ones are lost in the pile.

What if there was a limit like in the days of film rolls? What if you could only take a small number of photos at an event. Perhaps 4 at a party. Maybe a dozen on a trip. What would you capture? How much more interesting or meaningful would each of those photos be?

Something to think about. Happy shooting!