Why We Shoot Photos

David Pogue in his New York Times Blog recently wrote about "Why we shoot home videos." He identified 5 reasons including (1) for our older selves, (2) for our descendants, (3) for pleasure, (2) for historians, and (5) for posterity. Read David's post to enjoy his discussion.

It got me to thinking about why we do shoot photography. The collage above represents our family photo historians. Each of us has shot thousands of photos - many of those in 35 mm slide film. In the back is Robert Merriam (yes there are 2 of him), who began taking slide photos almost from the very beginning of availability of Kodak 35mm slides. He was an early adopter and he took copious notes on every slide including date, location, subject, time, speed, and aperture. Jean (Merriam) McLean followed in her father's passion shooting many 35 mm slides documenting our family. Both were gone before digital photography became available. I'm sure they would have loved it. I began shooting shortly after I was married 40 years ago and have amassed a large collection of slides of our family. I also have many of my grandfather's and mother's slides. I almost forgot. In the left upper corner are 2 of my sisters and my nephew. They are late adopters, but they are making up for lost time - especially my nephew.

We love to sit and watch slides as children and have fond memories of doing so. Okay, the truth was, we did watch slides, but at the same time we didn't want to do it too often. Now that we are older it is more fun. Flickr and other photo sharing technologies allow us to see the photos anytime we want, instead of waiting until the whole family gets together. Technology has changed the way we view photos and the availability of photography. Where I would once shoot maybe 4 or 5 slides, I now shoot as many as I want and hope to get a good one. Okay folks, why compose when I can hope for luck.

While this is a hobby, it is also important to me. When we lost our grandson I gathered photos from multiple family members and put together a 208 photo video for the funeral. No one person in the family had sufficient photos, but together we did quite well. In addition I made DVDs for the entire family - over 30 at this point, and while we may not watch it much, we have it and it is a reminder of someone we will always love, remember, and appreciate.

So, why do we shoot photos/videos? I think because we all like to think of ourselves as a part of history and a part of a larger family. It keeps us closer together. It allows us to be a part of other membes lives who may not be so close. When Joshua was born his Mom and Dad (mostly Mom) already had a blog going and we felt like we were part of his first few weeks. The blog was liberally sprinkled with great photos and videos. This helps to strengthen the family unit.

Well, I'm off to do some more family history recording - or as a former colleague said, "I'm 'making history.'" Well spoken.