Life At Slow-Mo

Photography has been part of my life since I was in the 7th grade. My father had a couple of film cameras which I often borrowed. From the single-lens reflex (SLR) Yashica cameras to his point-and-shoot Nikon pocket camera. I later bought a cheap fixed focus camera for my own use which was mostly in school. Years later I got myself a set of Canon EOS 1000D digital SLR, and also a second-hand EOS 50D. If all the cameras I ever borrowed, owned, and used were put in one place, I think they’d make a remarkable collection.

I used to bring my DSLR in a camera bag in my travels, which was a hassle. One time I left the bag in the food court of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. I was lucky that some good soul found it and reported it to the lost and found department, which later helped return the camera to me at a hefty cost. At another time, I brought my heavy DSLR on a hiking trip to the Mt. Seorak near Seoul, Korea, only to realize that the battery was dead. I ended up hauling the heavy, useless camera up and down the mountain.

That is why lately I rely on my camera phone for picture taking. It doesn’t take space in my luggage, it’s lightweight, it’s always charged, and it’s always on me at all times. The phone camera technology today is a lot better, and the picture quality is more than decent. Another reason why the phone camera is preferrable is because of social media. Nothing says ‘flexing’ better than posting online fresh of the moment pictures of you vacationing while your friends are toiling at work.

With all the ease and the technology of digital photography, I should be happy with all the photographs I take, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case. Every time I returned home from a trip, I would always have one regret: why didn’t I take more pictures?

Let me explain.

I recently reviewed the pictures I took during our latest trips. I found that I was so keen in getting the best photo to post online, I did two big mistakes. One, I focused on what I thought would be interesting objects for my social media followers. I used to photograph almost everything I saw that I thought worthy of remembering. As the consequence, my recent photo collection is poor in variety. I would take like one thousand pictures in one trip, but in close inspection many of the photos are of one object taken dozens of times.

The second mistake is in the format I used. I’m a big fan of Instagram, and I want to take pictures that can be directly posted to the platform. Since it uses 1 x 1 frame, I often make photographs in that format, while sometimes sacrificing the context of the object that I pictured.

One hack of film photography is not to worry about cropping the picture while taking it. Photographers would take a picture in as wide format as possible, and in as sharp quality as possible, and later crop it in the dark room to create the best composition. In digital photography, because you can see how the final result will be on screen, the photographers are often inclined to compose the photograph as they are taking it. There is nothing wrong with that. But putting the photo to a certain size will make cropping difficult.

There is a third mistake that I made in my past trips: relying on memory and experience to capture the moment. Some people are too eager to capture everything on film (or file) that they missed the experience. Just watch a video of a Taylor Swift live concert. Instead of eyes, you’d see thousands of phones watching the performance. But being human, even capturing on memory has a downside: memory will fade with time. Pictures are a good memory jogger, and they are certainly useful in reliving the experience.

So, here’s what I think I need to do. In my next trip, I will bring my DSLR. As heavy and impractical as it is, it has one major advantage: it helps me paying more attention to taking pictures for my own benefit instead as something to flaunt to impress others.