About memories and digital photography
Nowadays, photography has become so accessible to so many people around the world that, sometimes, it might look like that it was always like that. But, in fact, it is quite the opposite. The watershed for this immense popularisation was due to the evolution of digital technology over the past few decades.
Given that today slightly more than 45% of the world’s population has a smartphone on their hands, this means that virtually anyone can take pictures practically anywhere, at any time. Personally speaking, and as a photography enthusiast, I am amazed by this revolution.
I also understand that one can question the quality of the images generated by this massive number of cameras in the pockets of practically everyone, but this does not concern me at all. I am far more passionate about the immense creative possibilities that this technological revolution has brought to us.
Although digital cameras were invented in the mid-1970s, it took several decades for them to become affordable enough for a large number of people. Concomitant with that, the emergence of smartphones and their exponential sales growth-rate has also contributed to their popularisation. Before that, we all had to rely mostly on the, now old, colour 35mm film rolls to take pictures and subsequently, having the films processed.
However, unless you were a professional photographer, chances are that you did not have an unlimited number of rolls available to take dozens or hundreds of pictures around, and then process all of them to choose the best ones and discharge the others. In effect, most of the time you needed to be as assertive and selective as possible. Besides, making experiments with films of different ISO and between colour and black & white film rolls also demanded quite a lot of thinking and planning.
I remember very clearly, for example, the first time I travelled to London in the early 1990s. I was quite young back then and I was marvelled with the city. I wanted to register everything that I saw so that I could share it with family and friends back home. However, it was not that straightforward. You could find good deals for roll packs, for example, but this does not mean to say that they were a bargain. And the subsequent processing could also be costly. I mean, the math was quite simple. The more film rolls to process, the higher the expense.
This is to say that, on this first trip to London, I had the difficult task to choose carefully what to shoot, to avoid missing important aspects of my trip. First, because I did not have an unlimited number of rolls at my disposal to capture every moment or detail that I really wanted to and, second, because even if I had, this does not mean that I would be able to process all of them. In effect, on another international trip I made to Oslo a couple of years later, it took me many months to process all the photos taken.
So, while visiting traditional touristic places such as Hyde Park, the National Gallery, House of Parliaments, the British Museum, or The Tower Bridge, for instance, I had to consider whether to shoot pictures in all those places or just pick and choose a couple. I mean, the trick was to try to keep a nice and efficient balance and avoid coming back home empty-handed regarding images registry.
Yes, I know what you are thinking (especially if you are much young than me). It does sound quite odd in today’s social media world where everything happens in real-time. But, believe me. In those not-so-far-away days, it used to be very challenging for amateur photographers.
Moreover, it cannot be forgotten the fact that we also needed to be as skilful as possible in the art of photography to avoid producing pictures that, once processed, could turn into nothing but blurred or unrecognisable images (not to mention reddish eyes, poor compositions, wrong angle, and so forth). Nothing could be more frustrating and embarrassing than that.
In some occasions, I used to process a couple of rolls while still on the move in my international trips, just to make sure that everything was more or less under control. But if you were travelling on a budget, processing the pictures was not always an easy option. So that, getting some postcards used to be my ‘insurance policy’ so to speak. In case something could eventually go wrong with the pictures taken in that amazing place that I probably would not have the chance to return soon, I would have this backup to remember how it looked like and also to share with other people.
However, the nice part of the story is that a couple of decades later, I had the chance to travel to London again, and I have visited the same places I had been to in the early 1990s (in addition to several others, of course). It was incredible to live the experience to notice that not only the quality of my pictures taken with a good digital camera had improved tremendously in comparison to my old mechanic Zenit, but I was also able to shoot so many more and check the results instantly. The previous restrictions aforementioned were simply not there anymore.
Certainly, not only the camera I was using had been upgraded considerably, but I also had become a better photographer. Yet not professional for sure but I would say more skilled. It is not just a matter of point and shoot but understanding much better fundamental aspects to produce decent pictures such as composition, light, shadows, focal distance and so forth. So, the combination of these elements with the improved photo equipment, the output was very much appreciated by me, family and friends.
To sum up, it is not always that life grants us a second chance to repeat a pleasant travel experience, especially when the place is far from where you live. I can say that I was fortunate in this regard, and this temporal perspective has proved to be an amazing and edifying experience. I also believe that many people of my generation might relate to this experience whilst younger generations might find it curious, exotic or even weird.
Then, I wonder what sort of revolution the younger generations will experience in a few decades. Eventually, in the future, someone will write a similar account telling how he/she used to take pictures with ‘modern’ digital cameras but instead they are using something else more advanced. We never know. And there lays the beauty of such experiences.
