Photograph This

For some time now, I’ve been wondering why people still use professional photographers. Certainly most of them probably do a good job, but with the current technology it seems that taking a quality picture is easier than ever. That said, there are still a lot of people who for some reason can’t take good pictures. Maybe in this case there is a need to pay someone to do it for you.

I don’t have expensive or fancy camera equipment and I don’t think that using a $900 camera will insure that you get good results. For me, it is all about capturing the moment—which necessitates my having a small camera that is easy to carry. When my son was born we declined the services of a professional photographer at the hospital—yet we have some amazing photographs. Among my favorites is one of our newborn baby sleeping in the sunshine from a window. In this picture he looks like an angel and no props or artificial lighting could have made it any better—or as good.

This summer I attended an event that seemed to be dominated by an insatiable need to document every last second with professional photos. While it was obviously a look-at-me situation, I found it a bit much. But in this age of Facebook, people like to show how great their lives are to everyone they know or perhaps even to everyone in the whole world.

After more recently experiencing a change in my own daily schedule precipitated by someone else’s need to have their likeness captured by a professional photographer, I have to wonder if these staged shots are a true representation of how happy and well-adjusted they are? Could the desire for happiness fuel the need to pose for a photo depicting said happiness? Maybe that is something to ponder… or maybe not.