Say Cheese!

Click, transfer, edit, upload, share, comment!

Taking photographs and sharing it with the world has never been so easy. All thanks to the ubiquitous digicams and photo sharing sites like Flickr, Shutterfly and of course Facebook and Orkut. “You have just been tagged!” – you see that line in your mailbox and it triggers a flurry of activities which finally culminates in a smile, telling your friends about the incident and background about the photograph, just admiring the natural scenery, laughing at the smart alec comments to making your own comments. A simple photograph can just lighten up your face for the rest of the day.

However, I do miss the good old days...When there were no digicams. Yeah, so maybe, I am old fashioned. A few days back, I was looking for a few old photographs which had not been “digitized” and so had to scour through several old albums. Ah! The musty smell which arises when you open up those old albums...it’s something else. Nostalgia took over and several incidents immediately flashed by. An old black and white album, sitting with Mom with a hot cup of tea, Mom coming-of-age, hearing all her stories about how it was during her times, hearing the clichéd but smile inducing “hamare zamaane mein to..”, funny incidents about fights she had with her siblings, and life and people in general during those times! A picture can certainly evoke a thousand memories. A couple of hours can just pass by breezily looking at those albums, huddled together with family and friends.

Now, even those old photos of decades ago are being scanned, digitized and uploaded. I agree that now you will be able to share those warm memories with a lot more people at just the click of a button. Only, instead of sitting together and spending quality time with many others, all you will get to read are the words “Chintu from the US has commented on your photograph!”

None the less, whether on the computer or in your hands, a photograph has the capacity to delight, inspire and even provoke some serious thinking.

P.S. attaching a few links of my favourite photography sites plus some links from an e-mail doing the rounds about the 2008 story in pictures! Enjoy

2008 in pictures

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_in_photographs_part_2_of.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_the_year_in_photographs_p.html

Favourite Links

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/
http://www.durhamtownship.com/blog-archives/003455.html