I take photos of our great-nephew & great-niece, and our nephew's dog, when we see them -- but that's probably once a month, tops, these days. I took photos of our nephews (their dads) when they were growing up too (and I still thought I would have kids of my own to photograph someday). I do take selfies when I'm all dressed up and feel like I'm looking good, and sometimes I'll drag my husband into the photo with me. ;)
One thing I take a lot of photos of: sunsets, from our condo balcony. We didn't realize when we bought this place that we'd get a great view of some pretty stunning sunsets. (We can see sunrises too, but we're rarely up early enough!) I post a lot of them on Instagram & Facebook, & it's become a bit of a joke among my friends. My brother-in-law was teasing me about it last year, & I said to him, "Hey, not all of us have cute grandkids to take pictures of like you do." I kept my tone light, but he did shut up after that. The irony is that I've probably taken way, WAY more photos of his kids & grandkids over the years than he or his wife ever have. They've often said they would have no photos of their kids if it wasn't for me. Came in handy when the nephews were getting married & putting together slide shows for the reception and were looking for photos of themselves growing up...!
Isn’t it funny how mean our inner dialogue is. I saw your selfie and thought ‘what a happy lovely face’. Then when I read about the too short/long bangs, I scrolled back to see if I missed bad bangs, nope I saw nice hair.
My photos are mainly; plants, visitors, nice views, plants, my husband and food. If I have selfies they’re all at unflattering angles and of silly faces I’ve usually sent to a family member 🤣
As someone else said, nature photography mostly. Or travel. I love travel photography, though I'm a lazy travel photographer (or perhaps, opportunistic). And I display my photos. On my wall, in frames, and a few are printed on canvas. And I've made note cards with photos for years.
I mostly take pictures of flowers, nature, and our dog and cat. Selfies tend to send me into a negative self talk spiral, and I don’t need more of that. Like others have expressed here, I sometimes wonder why I’m even taking pictures as I rarely look back at them!
When pictures of my recently departed fur baby Ruben come up on my phone I always take it as a sign from him. I have a myriad of photos of my grandson, and kittens on my phone but it’s either Ruben or sunsets that my phone sends me and the sunset photos were mostly all taken on walks with Ruben. I avoid taking selfies because I guess I’m not comfortable looking at myself 🤷♀️
My recent phone photos are often temporary pictures. They don't stay around long: 1) My Wordle game of the day to share with a dear friend. We talk about our logic for getting at the solution. 2) Things I need at the grocery store, to be sure I get the exact product I want since there are so many choices and variations these days. 3) Things I need to magnify so I can see details or the tiny print.
But I do have lots of photos of my adult daughters and also of poetry events or readings I'm doing.
I take selfies to note something (this is a cure outfit, what is that weird rash) and to get used to seeing myself so author photos don’t scare me. Most of my photos are of my beloved cats. I also take photos of people I love. A friend i loved dearly died at 28, before we had digital cameras, and I only have about 3 photos of her, one of them her blurry face in a group shot.
Having kids doesn’t guarantee photos. I worked in a funeral home and a few photo tributes to grandma were just photos of the grandkids, not of her. It felt vaguely disrespectful to the deceased’s wholeness as a human being - from an outsider perspective, admittedly.
Thanks, Michelle. That is so sad about the grandmother represented by photos of people other than herself. I wonder if my family will post a board full of my selfies. That's not for me to figure out, I guess.
No pets so I mainly use my camera phone for "evidence" - my insurance cards, receipts for items I may have to return, proof of my DSW points since their site always subtracts(!) of its own volition, etc.
I'm glad you mentioned photos winding up in the dumpster when you're dead. I'm sure mine would be there too so I'd rather have control over them and destroy them now. And isn't that odd how family doesn't seem to want our photos?!?
Great post and thanks for the selfie tips, should I ever need one as evidence that I exist!
Photos used to be for preserving special occasions. But now they're used as shorthand, short-term messages on social media. "Here I am, here's what I did today," they say. They're much more for in-the-moment than forever. I haven't adopted that approach myself, but I think it's the prevailing one nowadays.
I take very few pictures, and almost no selfies. I don't really post pictures on social media.
I just finished a decluttering project, weeding through my physical and digital photos, scanning in some of the physical ones that I'd like to have digital copies of, and organizing them into folders. I deleted/threw out a lot. I like to have pictures of the scenery from my vacations so I can relive those trips, and I like to have a few photos of my most cherished people from a few different stages of life, but I don't need 2000 photos of the same person or the same event. I really wonder how many pictures that people take never get looked at again?
You're so right about photos being short-term messages now. I have thrown away a ton of photos over the last few years. Many of them came from my in-laws, pictures of things from their travels that no one else would care about. Even a lot of my own pictures don't seem worth saving anymore. I even kept the negatives from the film days. Out! I suspect a lot of photos never get looked at again. They just disappear in the depths of our electronic devices.
I'm about to get married at age 50 and getting sick of hearing 'oh you'll want some lovely pictures for your children'! I too have none and my cats are not remotely interested in photos of me 🙃
Growing up my mom hated having her photo taken. She would hold an object over her face if someone (my dad) pointed a camera towards her. I wish we had more photos of my dad but he was always behind the camera. Dad has been gone 3 years now, we lost him to Alzheimer’s. Last Christmas I took all his old 8mm videos and converted them to digital and put them on a jump drive as gifts for my family. It’s kinda freaky hearing his voice in the film narrating the scene or telling us to turn around or smile. Take the photo, selfie or not. Ask someone to photograph you. It’s worth it. Loved this piece.
I think I may have TWO selfies on my phone, but probably 1000 pictures of my cats! Im 77, divorced and childfree … and fine with it. I have tried taking selfies, but I always scare myself!! ;-) I'll try some of the hints you gave and see if I can take a decent selfie … and I'll be sure to let you know if I ever do!!
My phone has an awful lot of dog pictures, not just mine but other people's, too. And a few cats. If I didn't need pictures of myself for work, I probably wouldn't have any pictures of me either.
I'm laughing. Cats seem to be winning. Maybe I should get a cat. Dogs are so needy.
I take photos of our great-nephew & great-niece, and our nephew's dog, when we see them -- but that's probably once a month, tops, these days. I took photos of our nephews (their dads) when they were growing up too (and I still thought I would have kids of my own to photograph someday). I do take selfies when I'm all dressed up and feel like I'm looking good, and sometimes I'll drag my husband into the photo with me. ;)
One thing I take a lot of photos of: sunsets, from our condo balcony. We didn't realize when we bought this place that we'd get a great view of some pretty stunning sunsets. (We can see sunrises too, but we're rarely up early enough!) I post a lot of them on Instagram & Facebook, & it's become a bit of a joke among my friends. My brother-in-law was teasing me about it last year, & I said to him, "Hey, not all of us have cute grandkids to take pictures of like you do." I kept my tone light, but he did shut up after that. The irony is that I've probably taken way, WAY more photos of his kids & grandkids over the years than he or his wife ever have. They've often said they would have no photos of their kids if it wasn't for me. Came in handy when the nephews were getting married & putting together slide shows for the reception and were looking for photos of themselves growing up...!
Isn’t it funny how mean our inner dialogue is. I saw your selfie and thought ‘what a happy lovely face’. Then when I read about the too short/long bangs, I scrolled back to see if I missed bad bangs, nope I saw nice hair.
My photos are mainly; plants, visitors, nice views, plants, my husband and food. If I have selfies they’re all at unflattering angles and of silly faces I’ve usually sent to a family member 🤣
Ps. Soon the dog ratio will be increasing as we’re about to adopt!
I focus on nature photography. Can’t go wrong. Nothing to criticise there. 😁
As someone else said, nature photography mostly. Or travel. I love travel photography, though I'm a lazy travel photographer (or perhaps, opportunistic). And I display my photos. On my wall, in frames, and a few are printed on canvas. And I've made note cards with photos for years.
I wrote this about what I do with all my photos 12 or so years ago. It hasn't changed. Though my black and white photo wall has more frames now. https://aseparatelife.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/snapping-memories/
I mostly take pictures of flowers, nature, and our dog and cat. Selfies tend to send me into a negative self talk spiral, and I don’t need more of that. Like others have expressed here, I sometimes wonder why I’m even taking pictures as I rarely look back at them!
I can really relate to the sick of selfie scenario. And I look forward to your memoir.
When pictures of my recently departed fur baby Ruben come up on my phone I always take it as a sign from him. I have a myriad of photos of my grandson, and kittens on my phone but it’s either Ruben or sunsets that my phone sends me and the sunset photos were mostly all taken on walks with Ruben. I avoid taking selfies because I guess I’m not comfortable looking at myself 🤷♀️
My recent phone photos are often temporary pictures. They don't stay around long: 1) My Wordle game of the day to share with a dear friend. We talk about our logic for getting at the solution. 2) Things I need at the grocery store, to be sure I get the exact product I want since there are so many choices and variations these days. 3) Things I need to magnify so I can see details or the tiny print.
But I do have lots of photos of my adult daughters and also of poetry events or readings I'm doing.
I take selfies to note something (this is a cure outfit, what is that weird rash) and to get used to seeing myself so author photos don’t scare me. Most of my photos are of my beloved cats. I also take photos of people I love. A friend i loved dearly died at 28, before we had digital cameras, and I only have about 3 photos of her, one of them her blurry face in a group shot.
Having kids doesn’t guarantee photos. I worked in a funeral home and a few photo tributes to grandma were just photos of the grandkids, not of her. It felt vaguely disrespectful to the deceased’s wholeness as a human being - from an outsider perspective, admittedly.
Thanks, Michelle. That is so sad about the grandmother represented by photos of people other than herself. I wonder if my family will post a board full of my selfies. That's not for me to figure out, I guess.
A board full of (my) selfies feels cringe but I would LOVE a board full of selfies by anyone I love... like hanging out with them.
No pets so I mainly use my camera phone for "evidence" - my insurance cards, receipts for items I may have to return, proof of my DSW points since their site always subtracts(!) of its own volition, etc.
I'm glad you mentioned photos winding up in the dumpster when you're dead. I'm sure mine would be there too so I'd rather have control over them and destroy them now. And isn't that odd how family doesn't seem to want our photos?!?
Great post and thanks for the selfie tips, should I ever need one as evidence that I exist!
Ah, evidence of our existence. Now there's a reason to photograph ourselves. Thank you for your kind words.
Photos used to be for preserving special occasions. But now they're used as shorthand, short-term messages on social media. "Here I am, here's what I did today," they say. They're much more for in-the-moment than forever. I haven't adopted that approach myself, but I think it's the prevailing one nowadays.
I take very few pictures, and almost no selfies. I don't really post pictures on social media.
I just finished a decluttering project, weeding through my physical and digital photos, scanning in some of the physical ones that I'd like to have digital copies of, and organizing them into folders. I deleted/threw out a lot. I like to have pictures of the scenery from my vacations so I can relive those trips, and I like to have a few photos of my most cherished people from a few different stages of life, but I don't need 2000 photos of the same person or the same event. I really wonder how many pictures that people take never get looked at again?
You're so right about photos being short-term messages now. I have thrown away a ton of photos over the last few years. Many of them came from my in-laws, pictures of things from their travels that no one else would care about. Even a lot of my own pictures don't seem worth saving anymore. I even kept the negatives from the film days. Out! I suspect a lot of photos never get looked at again. They just disappear in the depths of our electronic devices.
I'm about to get married at age 50 and getting sick of hearing 'oh you'll want some lovely pictures for your children'! I too have none and my cats are not remotely interested in photos of me 🙃
Oh, those cats. My dog would have found the photos delicious to chew on. :-)
Growing up my mom hated having her photo taken. She would hold an object over her face if someone (my dad) pointed a camera towards her. I wish we had more photos of my dad but he was always behind the camera. Dad has been gone 3 years now, we lost him to Alzheimer’s. Last Christmas I took all his old 8mm videos and converted them to digital and put them on a jump drive as gifts for my family. It’s kinda freaky hearing his voice in the film narrating the scene or telling us to turn around or smile. Take the photo, selfie or not. Ask someone to photograph you. It’s worth it. Loved this piece.
Thank you, Hope. I need to track down my father's old movies. I'm sorry Alzheimer's got him. It's a wicked disease.
My phone? Cats. Just cats. Lots of cats.
I think I may have TWO selfies on my phone, but probably 1000 pictures of my cats! Im 77, divorced and childfree … and fine with it. I have tried taking selfies, but I always scare myself!! ;-) I'll try some of the hints you gave and see if I can take a decent selfie … and I'll be sure to let you know if I ever do!!
My phone has an awful lot of dog pictures, not just mine but other people's, too. And a few cats. If I didn't need pictures of myself for work, I probably wouldn't have any pictures of me either.