Photographic Overkill: why Sometimes it's Better to Put the Camera down
www.colesclimb.com
A recent hike left me with a lot of pictures, but hardly anything to say. Here's how photography has started to reshape our outdoor experiences for the worse:
Hi Cole, our minds eye gives us the best views and memories….plus no worries of iCloud account is full need to upgrade. Of course pictures capture special events, family, friends, scenery for others to enjoy as well….but try not to lose the actual moment.
Ugh. I feel this too deeply. I LOVE talking pictures and always take too many. But I love the way they help me tell a story and keep a visual of the memory. Figuring out the balance is tough. One thing I did realize this year, however: no one on my social media page really cares too see ALL of my vacation photos. That epiphany made it much easier to take Facebook off of my phone.
I agree about overkill! I normally don't take photos on runs, only a few on special hikes. The photos (with my lack of skill, anyway) never do the landscape justice.
I have several hundred photos sitting on the computer from our summer trip to the Arctic--the Dempster Highway. They mostly aren't great because it was very smoky from wildfires. I took what i took because i thought "i may never be this way again." (Now that I'm home i think, oh yes i will!) The trick with every set of pics of to just pare them down ruthlessly. Kill your darlings. Minor variations on a theme: pick one, delete the rest. You won't miss them. And then make prints!
I can so identify with your article! I have one single photo album from the first 18 years of my life. Then another 4 from college (4 years). And another 9 from grad school (5 years)...and that just the trips I took, not everyday life stuff. After that, I gave up because there were just SO MANY PICTURES! Once I got a digital camera, they started to multiply exponentially. Then I got a smartphone, and they multiplied even more to the point of overwhelm. Then I started writing on Substack, and I've started viewing life through the lens of being able to use a photo for my newsletter rather than just capturing meaningful moments. Maybe it's time to start getting back to the more simple way of taking photos.
Although, I do have to say, as a reader, looking at your photos is one of my favorite parts of reading your newsletter. You are also great at writing, but the photos get me every time.
This comment/question is nearly five months further down on the calendar, your “relaunch” comment sparked curiosity sufficient to launch an initial look for me. That being said, on the last photo posted up there, was it just a ridge-line capture, or inspired by something else?
This is definitely something I've struggled with, especially when it comes to writing blog posts. I'm also a little hamstrung by the fact that my favorite hiking partner Kelly gets mad as me if I don't include all of her favorite pictures when I write about one of our hikes. For next year, I think the compromise I've come up with is that I'll let her post as many pictures as she wants on Facebook and Instagram, then I will just share a few in the post, but link to the rest. lol, wish me luck.
When it comes to PhotoMO I haven't really had a huge problem with this on our hikes. For me, taking pictures is also a good chance to catch my breath as I try to keep up with Kelly racing up the mountain. But where I really did have an ahh ha moment about this was a few years ago on the 4th or July. For about 5 years now, I may take one or two fireworks pictures, but for the most part I leave the camera at home, the phone in my pocket, and just enjoy the show with my kids.
Beautiful, just breath-taking ! Photographic overkill, especially of landscape aesthetics, may seem too much, but, believe me, it´s actually never enough, it leaves us starving to death, for more, beyond the grave ! Too much is never enough !
Merry Christmas ! I celebrate the birth of Jesus, imagining peace. It´s a selfless time where I tend to forgive and try to forget the mundane stuff that wears me down.
My used Swiss pocket knife instantly turns into an essential AR 15 and my rusty machete into an existential dilemma between an AK 47 and a Dragunov. Dear God, please forbid any home invaders from visiting or even burglarizing my humble shed in the jungle, only monkeys, snakes, and mosquitoes allowed !!!
This degenerate bizarro is WW3 upon all of us !!! But one just can´t go down without a fight, one´s rocking boat, one´s tough rules ! Imagine us handicapped in third-world countries heavily sanctioned by the US and EU. We´d love to have your first-world problems, I can understand you ! But maybe not, ours, struggling for mere survival, make us realize that slavery was not abolished a century ago, as it´s been bragged about in history textbooks. Evolution is only Evilution, humanity never learns. Darwin is always at it.
Scorch-earth regards from the tropical wilderness in Nicaragua, Central America, so every day I do or live real Safari. Sometimes I feel even overwhelmed by so much nature. No digital currency down here, and hardly any cash. I scrape by close to the Masaya Lagoon and Volcano, dubbed the Gates of Hell, google it. You know, hell, sweet home. Not sweet, really, kind of bittersweet ! My shabby $2 flip-flop Ferrari I walk drives me nuts, which is ludicrous. Yet I´m grateful in this hardcore jungle, for being still alive. Merely breathing is a blessing.
Joy just to breathe ! Life is not a word, it is a sentence. Joy to be able to enJOY it however cruel, bad, or ugly it gets. But who am I, to be this privileged ? I´m just a soldier of Christ, nobly humble cannon fodder, fighting in the first row, bruised and bloodied, one-armed, bringing a breath to the world, still breathing, quite heavily, though, praising the Lord, all in Jesus´ name, to the best of my ability, to my very last breath on the battlefield called LIFE ! For how much longer ? That´s the million dollar question !
Hi Cole, our minds eye gives us the best views and memories….plus no worries of iCloud account is full need to upgrade. Of course pictures capture special events, family, friends, scenery for others to enjoy as well….but try not to lose the actual moment.
Ugh. I feel this too deeply. I LOVE talking pictures and always take too many. But I love the way they help me tell a story and keep a visual of the memory. Figuring out the balance is tough. One thing I did realize this year, however: no one on my social media page really cares too see ALL of my vacation photos. That epiphany made it much easier to take Facebook off of my phone.
I agree about overkill! I normally don't take photos on runs, only a few on special hikes. The photos (with my lack of skill, anyway) never do the landscape justice.
I have several hundred photos sitting on the computer from our summer trip to the Arctic--the Dempster Highway. They mostly aren't great because it was very smoky from wildfires. I took what i took because i thought "i may never be this way again." (Now that I'm home i think, oh yes i will!) The trick with every set of pics of to just pare them down ruthlessly. Kill your darlings. Minor variations on a theme: pick one, delete the rest. You won't miss them. And then make prints!
I can so identify with your article! I have one single photo album from the first 18 years of my life. Then another 4 from college (4 years). And another 9 from grad school (5 years)...and that just the trips I took, not everyday life stuff. After that, I gave up because there were just SO MANY PICTURES! Once I got a digital camera, they started to multiply exponentially. Then I got a smartphone, and they multiplied even more to the point of overwhelm. Then I started writing on Substack, and I've started viewing life through the lens of being able to use a photo for my newsletter rather than just capturing meaningful moments. Maybe it's time to start getting back to the more simple way of taking photos.
Although, I do have to say, as a reader, looking at your photos is one of my favorite parts of reading your newsletter. You are also great at writing, but the photos get me every time.
This comment/question is nearly five months further down on the calendar, your “relaunch” comment sparked curiosity sufficient to launch an initial look for me. That being said, on the last photo posted up there, was it just a ridge-line capture, or inspired by something else?
Thought provoking, however I do believe magic can happen before and after the shot. More is not always better, but more can be good, not always bad.
This is definitely something I've struggled with, especially when it comes to writing blog posts. I'm also a little hamstrung by the fact that my favorite hiking partner Kelly gets mad as me if I don't include all of her favorite pictures when I write about one of our hikes. For next year, I think the compromise I've come up with is that I'll let her post as many pictures as she wants on Facebook and Instagram, then I will just share a few in the post, but link to the rest. lol, wish me luck.
When it comes to PhotoMO I haven't really had a huge problem with this on our hikes. For me, taking pictures is also a good chance to catch my breath as I try to keep up with Kelly racing up the mountain. But where I really did have an ahh ha moment about this was a few years ago on the 4th or July. For about 5 years now, I may take one or two fireworks pictures, but for the most part I leave the camera at home, the phone in my pocket, and just enjoy the show with my kids.
Beautiful, just breath-taking ! Photographic overkill, especially of landscape aesthetics, may seem too much, but, believe me, it´s actually never enough, it leaves us starving to death, for more, beyond the grave ! Too much is never enough !
Merry Christmas ! I celebrate the birth of Jesus, imagining peace. It´s a selfless time where I tend to forgive and try to forget the mundane stuff that wears me down.
My used Swiss pocket knife instantly turns into an essential AR 15 and my rusty machete into an existential dilemma between an AK 47 and a Dragunov. Dear God, please forbid any home invaders from visiting or even burglarizing my humble shed in the jungle, only monkeys, snakes, and mosquitoes allowed !!!
This degenerate bizarro is WW3 upon all of us !!! But one just can´t go down without a fight, one´s rocking boat, one´s tough rules ! Imagine us handicapped in third-world countries heavily sanctioned by the US and EU. We´d love to have your first-world problems, I can understand you ! But maybe not, ours, struggling for mere survival, make us realize that slavery was not abolished a century ago, as it´s been bragged about in history textbooks. Evolution is only Evilution, humanity never learns. Darwin is always at it.
Scorch-earth regards from the tropical wilderness in Nicaragua, Central America, so every day I do or live real Safari. Sometimes I feel even overwhelmed by so much nature. No digital currency down here, and hardly any cash. I scrape by close to the Masaya Lagoon and Volcano, dubbed the Gates of Hell, google it. You know, hell, sweet home. Not sweet, really, kind of bittersweet ! My shabby $2 flip-flop Ferrari I walk drives me nuts, which is ludicrous. Yet I´m grateful in this hardcore jungle, for being still alive. Merely breathing is a blessing.
Joy just to breathe ! Life is not a word, it is a sentence. Joy to be able to enJOY it however cruel, bad, or ugly it gets. But who am I, to be this privileged ? I´m just a soldier of Christ, nobly humble cannon fodder, fighting in the first row, bruised and bloodied, one-armed, bringing a breath to the world, still breathing, quite heavily, though, praising the Lord, all in Jesus´ name, to the best of my ability, to my very last breath on the battlefield called LIFE ! For how much longer ? That´s the million dollar question !
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