Sunday, March 21, 2010

you're no photographer, but...

have you ever been browsing through someone's photos, only to notice that half of them consist of that person either standing in front of the mirror or having his/her arm outstretched in front of him/herself, and you can imagine that person spending the few precious moments it takes to get that ever so perfect pose so that they can press the button and get an everlasting image of how beautiful (or not) he/she is? i know that is a long question, but it is in fact grammatically correct and properly punctuated. when i see so many photos of a person holding his camera in front of a mirror or holding is arm outstretched in front of him, getting more and more photos of himself, it leads my thoughts down one path, to one ultimate conclusion: that this person is clearly not fit to actually own a camera. really. think about it. how smart do you have to be to figure out the timer on your camera? it's not that hard. you press two or three extra buttons, set the camera down, gather yourself up into whatever wondrous pose the world has inspired you to imagine and FLASH. photo taken.
i know that when we're holding our cameras in our hands every one of us thinks of ourselves as the latest winner on america's next top model, just having landed a huge contract, and are thus obligated to participate in our own special little photo shoot. problem is half that time there's no real photographer. so what do we do? we come up with the bright idea that we can take our own pictures. i'm not saying this is a bad idea. i know how much fun it can be to take a series of pictures, eagerly awaiting the moment i can post them on facebook. however. those of use who actually use the other half of our brains, have sense enough not to make ourselves look like vapid idiots by dragging out half our wardrobes and running through the various poses which we've learned for taking pictures while growing up.
all i'm saying is that, it's ok, it's absolutely acceptable to grab a brother, sister, cousin, friend, or neighbor for a quick session of point and click. that way you're not impeded by the physical limitations one encounters when having to take one's own picture. that way no one has to see your head and face blown out of proportion because you're holding the camera at arms length, without being able to tell at which angle to hold the camera... no one has to see your posing image reflected off of your bathroom mirror in your photo. people can actually see YOU! either that, or simply work out how to operate the timer function on your camera...

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