iPhoneography | A Printed Memory | A Photograph Never Grows Old
© 2012 Wazari Wazir | A Printed Memory | My Son Raphael
“A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind.”
– Albert Einstein –
I’ve to admit that compared to film days, when I was shooting with film, I prints a lot, mostly each of 36 frames exposed will be printed those days, but now when I switch to digital photography, I do print less but still I did print some of my pictures especially my family pictures, regularly. Even though I travel a lot, I did not print much of my travel pictures, like Taj Mahal, landscape and architectural short, maybe just print few of them, yes they are great to look at but it really doesn’t have strong connection with me personally but maybe if I were to be invited to join some kind of photography exhibition, I will consider to print those pictures in big size because I believe that a beautiful landscape, sunrise, or historical landmark shot will look much better in big poster size compared to small size like 4R, the size that I print my family pictures.
For those of you who have never prints their digital pictures, my suggestion is, try print few pictures and trust me, the feeling of holding a piece of a memory is not the same as looking your pictures on a computer screen. Don’t laugh at me, I’ve met someone who took thousand of pictures with their iPhone but have never print any single picture of it. I do print a lot of pictures taken with my iPhone, and believe me, if you are using the latest iPhone 4 or iPhone 4s, the quality of the pictures is great in 4R size provided that you took the photograph in a great bright lighting conditions. You don’t have to trust me but try it for yourself, like I said, if you take the photograph in a good lighting condition, outdoors, a close up picture of your family members, the quality is good, as good as a picture taken with a compact camera, if you print them in 4R size, off course if you wanted to print it larger than that, 8R size and above, you will begin to see a drop of quality but honestly how many people prints 100-200 pictures of their family members in 8R size and above?
So if you have thousands of personal pictures stuck somewhere deep in your hard drive, I think it is good for you to take them out for a prints, let them see the light and make someone happy. When I’m traveling I like to bring few of my family pictures with me, always, it is good for breaking the ice or to start a conversation with a strangers, yes I can show some of my family members pictures with my iPhone but it is never the same, the feeling of holding a printed memory in your hand is not not the same, have you ever hold a printed pictures of your family members, your grandmother or your grandfather pictures printed twenty, thirty or maybe forty years ago, trust me, the feeling will never be the same as looking them on your computer screen. A photograph never grows old.
