iamecb: The Boon and Bane of Digital Cameras

The Boon and Bane of Digital Cameras

I consider photographs of family and friends as treasures. I love looking at old photographs. Memories that I shared with people come alive when I look at them. Photographs become my prozac when I feel depressed and my company when I am unable to sleep till wee hours in the morning.

Unfortunately, capturing all those precious moments in one's life entail money. First you have to have a camera, buy films and have them developed. Sometimes, if your camera or photographer is not that good , the photos don't come out nice and money is wasted.

With the invention of digital cameras, "junk photos" are things of the past. You just delete from your cameras' memory all photos not to your liking and you can click every conceivable pose and action to your heart's content without having to spend on developing them.

Nowadays, my digital camera is a “must bring” item in my bag. I love to document my activities especially when I meet up with friends. During the last year’s Simbang Gabi, I took photos for the nine consecutive days that I heard mass. Kapalan lang ng mukha no. But then, I found out that some people did like being photographed, ( it’s very Filipino like karaoke singing) it’s just that they don’t have the audacity that I have. Ha ha ha. My children would like to disappear from this planet every time they see me doing this.

The term facebook means more than just a social networking site to a Filipino. Before, we used to term taking pictures as Kodak moments or Kodakan. But the term Kodak now is passé… its now.. pang Facebook.. Iba ang Pinoy… We look for Colgate instead of toothpaste, always Scotch tape even if the brand is not, etc. Well, “Being Filipino” is another topic.

Going back to digital camera…, once you have looked at the photos, you just save them on your computer and that's it. Its seldom that you have them printed and compile in an album. Looking at photographs from family albums and from the computer evoke different feelings for me. I still prefer that I hold each photo in my hand rather than clicking from my computer. Besides, photos are sometimes my company. I can be with them anywhere, lying down, in the garden or even on the road when I am travelling. I keep them in my wallet, my desk or between the pages of my books. They also serve as my decors around the house. You can see them in every room except the dining room and kitchen.

Since my kids started using digital cameras, my collection of photographs had ceased to increase. The last printed photos we had as family were those taken in Boracay in 2005. After that, all our photos are stored in the computer and each child has his /her own folder or website that trying to look at them would be a real task for me since I am not a whiz at computers.

When I conceived a project on making video presentation of the Comines family, the importance of printed photos was stressed. Not only it’s easier to select photos to be included, they come in very handy. I keep our family photos in boxes, one for each child, one for me and Bong and with the children, and one for relatives and friends. I did this because they are readily available whenever a photo is needed in the school or video presentation. Teachers love to require their students to bring a family photo or do a story of their lives in photographs. Kaya nga nagka watak watak na ang mga albums ko. Since then, I stopped putting our photos in photo albums.

Anyway, with all my collection of photos, I still feel that I was not able to capture all those important events in our family life due perhaps to laziness or to the dictum that"money dictates what has to be". I am now more bent on keeping printed photos so that the next generations may enjoy looking at them as I do now when I look at old photographs. What if mawala ang facebook or maubos na and source of energy? Or earthquake at tsunami katulad sa Sendai.. or magkaWorld war III at mamundok tayo. Wala computer dun ha.

I once read from a contributor of readers digest that if her house is on fire, the first thing (besides human lives), that she will save is their family photos. Don't we all agree?