Snapshots

While on Santorini, Bill is working and it is just not in my nature to sit back and relax.  I have an innate need to “justify my existence,” in the words of an old friend.  So for me, relaxation comes from running, taking walks with my camera to scout for my Shoot in Santorini website, checking emails, and perhaps most satisfying, editing photographs of my daughter Maxie's bat mitzvah.

All that done, I sit down have to write.  Bill is off helping our friend repair his boat after damage wrought by last night’s wild thunder and lightning storm.  The air is cool and breezy, and clouds have blocked in the island in a way we could never imagine possible from the typically blue sky days of August and September on so many trips with our kids.

So many pictures from so many vacations!  What do we do with all those snapshots?   The beauty of digital photography is the freedom to shoot a lot.  The downside is if we trust our albums to an electronic form, with the rate of technological change, that computer, and the files therein, will someday no longer be accessible.  A line in the book I just finished (The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby) put it well: “Fragile as it is, paper seems to be the only thing left in the end.” That must be seen as true for our family photographs too.  Unless we print them they’ll eventually disappear in a technological black hole.  So learn the art of the edit.  Delete the bad ones, the redundant ones, and print the rest, through any one of the many on-line processors. (My Publisher is a favorite of ours).  That way, they’ll always be there to retell your family history. 

(As the holidays approach, Bill is often asked about cameras.  He recommends the Canon Powershot G10, at about $400+ dollars.  It's neither terribly expensive nor overly elaborate--an excellent buy and in the right hands offers magnificent results. Our son, Zander, made beautiful use of his during his recent semester in Sicily.  Take a look at his Sicilian Portfolio here.)