Always Carry a Camera
With all of the events of the past month, I realized one thing that I hadn’t really thought about. I realized how important it is to always have a camera with you, but more importantly, to actually use it. When going through all of my photos to find ones of Ryan, some of the shots that I ended up surprising me are from when I would have had a camera with me at our weekly Starbucks gatherings, and I would be taking pictures, just to take pictures. I had never posted these shots anywhere, but it really emphasized to me the importance of taking pictures even if you don’t really have a plan for where they will end up. Some friends and I were discussing at the viewing in Nashville how we all wished that we all had more pictures of each other when we weren’t in costume or at an event of some sort. We are in the days of digital cameras now, where memory is cheap, so there is no reason to not document day to day activities. At the TN memorial, attendees were asked to bring some of their favorite pictures of Ryan to hang on the wall, and some of them were camera phone pictures, but they were memories that would have easily been lost.
One thing to be aware of in this, is something that I struggle with, is to make sure that you are in pictures as well. Most any photographer will probably agree that in general, we don’t like to be on that side of the camera. If you have a friend who is always the one carrying around a camera, take it from them, and make sure that they are in photos too. Obviously the easiest way to do this, is for everyone to have a camera and take pictures as each person will offer a unique perspective. It is in candid photos that people are caught being themselves, not offering up a contrived smile when they know that a photo is being taken.
Originally published at dwrd.net