say cheese

i finally became part of the digital age last month when i got myself a digital camera. and i must say, it is an addictive piece of equipment. almost everywhere i go, there also goes my camera. in my purse, in my bag, tucked away in an $8 dorky camera sack is my new, shiny little camera.

to be sure, all my camera-lugging stems from a desire to want to document everything. in college, i took a lot of pictures my freshman year but rarely took any of the three years after. it's nice looking back at everything from freshman year, seeing all the friends i'd made then, capturing the first few months of our eternal friendship. gosh i love those pictures.

but i digress. the point is that i thought, "hey. i'm in d.c., seeing things i may never see again. i should get a digital camera." this makes sense.

what i didn't realize is how camera-happy i would become. it's like some weird feeling of power: "look at me. i have an incredible amount of memory and i'm gonna use it." i never have to worry about the limits of film. forget 36. i can hold 500. muhahahaha. ha.

this new "digital camera power" that's seemed to have taken over me is not new. understandably, most people with digitals take more pictures than the ordinary. but let's think about this. i mean, remember looking at your parents' photo albums? their college years - hell, their whole life can be seen in picture format in just a few albums. cameras were bigger; film was expensive. they could hardly take their giant camera out on an ordinary friday night at the bar. it'd be ridiculous.

but now i turn around at a happy hour and people are snapping away. actually, the group of us interns took a few shots while eating crabs yesterday. messy, dirty, gutted crabs. and we weren't the only ones trying to get a shot of our clearly life-changing event.

it's just interesting how our lives will pass down to our children. out of our 97098237458 pictures, which ones will we pick to show them? which moments will we treasure?

and is it that important to get it all on film? sometimes it's just better to have it in your head. in the end, the most memorable events of my life just aren't saved on film, you know?

i have no conclusions about this. it's not deep. i just think the rise of the digital age is magnifying what we can capture - what we can store. as long as we don't let the picture-taking get in the way of experiencing the moment.

it'll be interesting to see what it'll be like 20 years from now... and how many pictures i'll have taken.