Tag: Fair

This article was originally published on linkedin.com.

With every click of the shutter, a moment is captured in time.

There’s something captivating about a camera. We all use them everyday. From smartphones, “2000’s digitals”, disposables or even photobooths, we’re constantly reaching to document the occasion. But why?

In a world filled with motion, photography makes you pause. Especially today, every. single. moment. is captured in photograph. Outfits of the day, a recent meal, world travels, pets in silly poses and every moment spent with friends (even the drunk ones) are all captured and 9/10 the pictures aren’t looked at again. So what is the purpose of taking an image in the first place?

It’s a personal time machine. You might not remember the picture that was taken when you went to lunch with your friends or the outfit that you wore to your best friend’s wedding, but the second it resurfaces, your brain is suddenly flooded with a million different emotions and memories of the day. All of a sudden, a simple picture, unlocks a moment in time. It was the last lunch you had before you moved to college and there was a sense of sadness from parting with your friends but a newfound excitement as you dream of what you could be. You sat at your hometown restaurant that you haven’t been back to in a few years and you can remember the layout, the food and the smell. It all happened then, but it comes to life now.

I started getting into photography my senior year of high school. I worked for a professional photographer on the side as a way to make a little extra cash on the side. I started on the post-production side, picking out the “best” images and editing them to be delivered to clients. I picked the images that I thought were the best, perfect smiles, nice angles and lighting. Images I thought were pristine that would be printed out, hung on walls and displayed for all to see. It wasn’t until after I got behind the camera that my mindset changed. The perfect image does not always create the perfect picture.

When I started interacting with the clients I was photographing, I focused on the moment. Pictures that I once would have discarded suddenly had new meaning. Couples with squinted eyes from laughing so hard at a joke, kids with silly expressions from just being kids even babies crying during newborn sessions all became the perfect picture. Because it wasn’t about capturing the “perfect” image, it was about capturing the moment. A moment you were celebrating with your partner, a moment a child unlocked a new emotion in their personality or a moment you chose to appreciate the creation of life, because tiny toes only stay tiny for so long. All of these “imperfect” moments are locked away in the time machine of a picture.

One day, the pictures will be released. You’ll tell your kids, “This was me when…”. You’ll come across photos you once hated and discover how much you really love them. You’ll find a bent polaroid or old picture once thumbtacked in your college dorm room. You’ll hop in your time machine and go back to “the time when”.

So where does your time machine take you?

As time has passed, I have developed a deeper appreciation for the art of photography. I’ve learned to not critique the physical image but to focus on the “big picture”. No matter my feelings captured in the moment, I have never regretted hopping back into my time machine.