Snapper happy

Yesterday I was at a friend's wedding. I only went to the ceremony because my friend was kind enough to invite me and I thought it would be impolite to turn the invitation down. I don't like weddings as I have stated in a previous entry. One of the aspects I don't like about how snapper happy everybody is with their cameras. I know the wedding day is a memorable event in anybody's lives and they want to record the moment so they can remember the occasion at a later date. That is why you employ a professional photographer to perform the task. For everybody else there really is no excuse.

If you are taking a few photos that is fine, I'll accept that. But if you are spending more time taking photographs instead of enjoying the occasion, you have really missed the point. Why take so many pictures and then when you come back to look at the them later, you cannot remember the occasion? Just try to enjoy the occasion and probably take a few pictures just to jog the memory later.

I really do blame digital technology for this. With the advent of the digital camera, people don't have to worry about wasting film or precious space. In fact they might as well keep their index finger on the snapper button. Another regard in which technology have seriously affected picture taking is having photo albums. In years gone by, we used to actually take out photo albums from cupboards or drawers and sat down with friends or families to flick through the pages and look at pictures of occasions such as birthday parties and weddings. Instead people just stored them on their computers, never looking at them again. That was the reason why I bought a digital photo frame for my parents, to get them to display the pictures they take of our dogs and the photos they take on holiday.

When people do put digital photos up on online albums, they never ever sort them out. They tend to download every single photo, meaning their album contains about a few hundred pictures. I remember lining up after the wedding ceremony yesterday to get some food, only to be held up by some guy who was taking several photos of the shao mei they were serving! I would understand if the food concerned was something rare, such as caviar or truffles but dim sum? And it wasn't one photo, it was three or four. I bet he would store them on his hard drive and download every single snapshot to his Facebook page.

I also despise having to pose for pictures. I just find it unnatural, having to stand their staring at the camera and smile like a Cheshire cat. It really doesn't capture the occasion. I always like taking candid photos rather than getting somebody to stop what they doing. Also you can get to do more witty comments on the photo as people tend to be more animated and doing several poses.

I took my camera yesterday but I left the camera in my car, which I rather glad I did because it spared me being sucked into being the rest of the congregation.