TheBanyanTree: Pictures

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I had 11 rolls of film from our cruise developed.  Some of the pictures were
of the boys at the Minnesota Zoo, the younger one’s birthday, and the
Science Museum.  Then the cruise pictures started in earnest.  I have a good
SLR camera and I’m able to take shots like a machine gun and I make full use
of that ability, so I end up with a lot of pictures.  Some of the shots don’
t come out, but every once in a while, I get a good picture.

I’m a scenery photographer, which means I’m always looking at nature kinds
of things.  I love hills, flowers, trees, animals, sunsets, sunrises, cloud,
and cruise ships docked in the harbor, but my pictures of people are few and
far between.  Of course, I take lots of pictures of my grandsons, and of
Ray, and those pictures usually turn out OK.  But when I want “people”
pictures, like from family functions, I turn to my trusty “people”
photographer, Ray.  He has this incredible knack of getting people to relax
in front of the camera.

I have to get my house ready to sell.  I made up a work plan last week.  My
week nights and my weekends are jammed with stuff to do, and I wonder where
I’m going to get the time to work on the house. Before I started preparing
the rooms in our house for painting, I decided to get these cruise pictures
organized otherwise they’ll just end up in boxes.

And from what I understand that’s where a lot of people’s pictures end up,
in boxes, with no one to look at them.  I’m always amazed at how we’re so
encouraged to take pictures with our cell phones, our digital cameras, our
SLR cameras, and our video cameras, but it seems very few people organize
their pictures in any way, and therefore, hardly anyone sees them.  Some
archaeologist is going dig up our stuff thousands of years from now and find
piles and piles of photographs, miles of VHS tape, and millions of shiny
disks, and wonder how we used all this media in our society.

I also notice that some people cringe when invited to share pictures.  Yes,
it can be boring looking at their family pictures, but at the same time,
photographs can be a way of stimulating conversation, learning more about
someone and their family and interests, or sharing photographs can be a
unique way of building a bond with someone.

Yes, most people take terrible pictures.  A lot of people do the “grouped”
family shots and rarely take a candid picture.  And I agree, nothing could
be more boring than watching a one hour video of a child smearing birthday
cake all over their face.  But it astounded me when we were going through
the Panama Canal at how some people took only one or two pictures during a
six hour journey.  But then we’re really not taught how to creatively take
pictures, but we’re certainly pushed to buy the equipment, so I’m not
surprised at the reluctance some people have using that complicated
equipment to preserve their memories.

So I put the house on hold and worked through organizing the pictures.  I
had doubles of everything, so I made a chronological pile for the trip photo
album and labeled envelopes of pictures by date for the scrapbook that I’ll
do “someday” in the future.  I labeled the envelopes with the negatives by
date and subject and I labeled the CDs by date and subject.  I file these
envelopes away in a file box after I load the CDs on my computer and then
upload the pictures to a photo sharing site.

I keep up albums for my grandsons with their pictures and then I have Ray’s
and my album for our pictures.

Gosh, no wonder people keep their pictures in boxes.  This is too much work!
It took me a whole afternoon to get those 11 rolls of film organized.  But I
can now share my cruise pictures with everyone (and hopefully not bore
them).  I’ll get to the house selling preparation activities later this
afternoon.  Whew!

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

I see great things in baseball.  It's our game - the American game.  It will
take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger
physical stoicism.  Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set.
Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.
~Walt Whitman