No More Wasted Film

In old photo cameras — you know, the ones with film — you have to concentrate on every shot, every frame, because you paid for some 24 exposures, and there are no do-overs. But today's digital cameras are an endless blank slate, where the number of shots you can take seem limitless and mistakes are erased with a click. -TIME Magazine

One of the many things that the next generation of children will never experience is the sound of rewinding film.  The skill it took to take a great picture.  With digital cameras all the rage, I cannot help but wonder if this ability to capture every moment of life and delete it with just as much ease is impacting how people approach life.  Myself included.

I remember a time when some thought went into whether I was going to act a certain way.  I knew I only had a limited number of chances and definitely did not want to waste them on bad memories.  Wasted film.

Now, our technology has advanced so far that we can try and try again to get the perfect shot.  No more wasted film.  Granted, I love my digital camera and carry it every where with me.  I take more pictures because I can always delete something I don't like.  I could argue that it helps teach me how to be a better photographer because I am learning from my mistakes.  But am I really?  My albums on Facebook are full of out-of-focus, crooked pictures, I'm still as terrible as I always have been.

Everyday I am faced with many different decisions.  More often than not I have a digital camera philosophy on how I choose to react.  "It does not matter how many mistakes I make, God's grace covers all and deletes them from my past"  Really, I am telling myself that I can take as many pictures as I want, whether good or bad and because God loves me I can "delete" what I want from my life.

How messed up is that?  Yes, God's grace is awesome and will always cover us.  But is that really the best mentality to have?

I know by writing this I am not going to change the way I act the minute I hit "publish post."  And tonight I will probably make a series of these decisions all over again.  But I do miss the days of film.  I miss the pressure of choosing my pictures wisely so that I got the most that I could out of that roll of film.    I think going digital has caused me, and probably lots of other people, to go lazy on how they approach life.  I only wish I knew how to motivate myself to try harder.

Photo courtesy of OeilDeNuit



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2011482_2011480_2011466,00.html#ixzz0x4U7dO81