Every picture is a memory. Every time we press the shutter on the camera we are freezing a moment of history so we can preserve it forever. It sounds monumentous doesn't it, but it's not: Facebook will certainly tell you otherwise. I log on each day to see the myriad of photos that my so-called 'friends' vomit onto my homepage. Not only do people upload a sequence of the same picture - I have two of them so why not use them - but the other people in the picture will also post their versions of it. The result? Monster albums clogging up the internet providing the CIA with plenty of material should anyone need blackmailing in the future...


It is an age-old question, though. How do we make our holiday photos interesting to the general public? How do we step away from the necessity to have 'been there' to really appreciate someone else's pictures? And, while we're at it, how can we remove this insane fashion for de-tagging and portraying this hideously false image on Facebook? There is no hard and fast solution - no tried and tested method to solve this, but I think I may have hit upon a compromise.


May I invite you to read on...

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Stresa-d Out

A couple of posts ago I talked about perspective - getting some perspective in terms of the people I spent a mere month of my life with, and also getting some perspective in my jumping photos so that it was obvious I was jumping and not crouching next to a tiny Italian flag.

This is true of the next picture in my jumping album: you'll see that it looks like I'm a giant on top of a Borromean Island in the middle of Lake Maggiore. This would be unlikely and again, it's just an interesting perspective which is currently winning the battle against common sense in my blog 2-0.

So, like my previous post, I'm in Stresa on Lake Maggiore. Feeling rather invincible, I decided to have another go at jumping as I'd managed to escape unscathed from my previous escapade and I quite like tempting fate. Ultimately I was killing time with my family before we went up on a cable car to above the lake.

I hate killing time. I'd already taken pictures with all the exercise signs along the waterfront. Firstly I never saw anyone else attempting them, and secondly I'm always up for a bit of ritual embarrassment. There were several signs with suggestions for different exercises every few yards. What a waste of money...

Anyway, I'd completed them all with varying degrees of hilarity, and we had about half an hour before we had to get the cable car. We didn't want to be late so there was no point venturing into town for a browse. The only option was to kill time.

Now I don't wait well. Waiting stresses me out. My only alternative was clear: take some jumping photos.

How to Ruin a Beautiful Photograph
Stresa, Italy, 2009
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Location: Stresa Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy

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