Over spring break, I took on the task of cleaning out my parents' very cluttered computer. I trashed hundreds of documents, but I didn't touch a single photograph. Photos are amazing. So are videos. They capture moments of our life and people who mean the most to us.
Luckily, we live in a time when we all have cameras at our fingertips to collect these moments. But we also live in a time where we can find photos of almost anything on the Internet. So photos can lose their value unless they are personal.
For example, I went to an NBA game a few weeks ago. Since most of my students are big LeBron James fans, I made a point of taking many, many photos and videos of him playing. Do you know what there favorite photo was? The one of me in front of the court. They can see LeBron play every single day from their phones or computers. They don't know anyone personally who has watched him play. So they wanted to see me there. They wanted to hear my stories. They wanted to know exactly where I sat and how many people were there and how it felt and what surprised me.
Last week, I went to a concert. It was entertaining and exhilarating and an all-around good experience. But, at any given moment, my view of Andy Grammer was blocked by at least 5 cell phones recording the concert. Are those people really going to go back and watch a grainy reproduction of that concert? If they want to see him perform, go to Youtube. Do they prefer to watch him in that small screen when they could see it live in front of them? I doubt it. They just wanted to capture a moment that seemed meaningful. I'm not saying I didn't have my phone out. But most of the time, I turned the camera around. I filmed my friends and their smiles. I filmed us dancing and singing. I believe those are the photographs that I'll come back years from now and will make me smile. Those are the ones I will clog my phone or computer up with because they are worth it.
Like I said, photos are magical things. I wish all the time that I had more than one photo with Moriah. Or more with my grandfathers. So take pictures of people that matter. You'll want those. But the mountains or celebrities or buildings or sports teams? You can skip it. Use your eyes instead.
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