Pictures Worth A Lifetime

For a long time, I avoided Flickr - mainly because I didn't have a digital camera, and because my style is a bit more text based than other sites, though over the last few months I've been using a lot more pictures to lend context to what I'm writing about.

Before digital cameras, I bought disposable cameras now and then - and I found the hobby too expensive. Now, with digital cameras, I can afford to take bad pictures - and it's become a sort of hobby with the old, bulky Canon A40 Powershot I keep moving around with. I need something lighter, soon, but I'll wait for a while because as a photographer - I don't deserve a better camera. Sean, at Digiteyesed.com, is a hard act to follow.

So - for those of you who haven't noticed - there are links to my photos over there on the left. I used to have the Flash badge that Flickr has, but found it took too long to load on slower connections - so I swapped out to the HTML version. Plus, with the HTML version and Mozilla I can open the pictures in a new tab instead of another browser.

So I've become pretty involved with photography, and by extension, Flickr. It was no surprise that my mother got started, and even found the use for a Pro account (as I have). She even has a few good pictures of me mixed in with some bad ones. With the recent death of my father, I've been reaching back into memories in what I call a mourning torture, and the pictures help me shake the funk off.

Of course, I've been a little more open myself since the old man passed away. It's been necessary for my sanity.

My sis got in on the act as well - with some great pics of parts of her life where I was around and parts where I wasn't. She'd actually tried to get everyone working together on some family sites, but I didn't have the time then - or more importantly, the inclination. But Jinger was really the one who started this off, and I'm a late one to the scene (only fitting for me being the last kid of Mom's). Family's important, and even though I've not been around them much - both my mother's and father's side - they really came together and kept me on track after the old man decided to find some other place to redesign (probably telling them they're doing it all wrong right now).

Family. Technology. If family isn't a part of culture, I don't know what is. The cost of the technology for all of this has been minimal... especially considering the amount of value I've derived. I've also come up with a theory that amateur photographers have kids soley to take pictures of them. :-)

On the more 'professional' side, there's the Digital Divide Flickr group which I'm contributing to. In fact, nowadays I go find things to take pictures of. Maybe it's a phase I'm going through. I don't know.

What I can tell you is that sharing pictures with family and friends... well, there's more value than cost for me. And I don't even have to host the images, which means less bandwidth for the site (which is paying for itself now, thank you).

Hats off to Flickr for giving me a new space to grow in. Pictures are worth a lifetime - and in some cases, more.