It’s incredibly common amongst folks in my generation to take photos of anything and everything to share on socail platforms; these people have been labelled by psychologists to be an “Oversharer.” It’s not just the millennials though, if you’re familiar with the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, you know that famed Street Artist Mr. Brainwash does the same thing to an obsessive compulsiveness that is easily seen in today’s millennials. If it’s actually recording a memory to be shared later on, that’s fine; but communities like Snapchat don’t really allow that.
In fact, pretty much every community has an emphasis on the fleeting moment that we care about for a couple of seconds before scrolling on.
A fleeting moment online is typically nowhere as effective as a fleeting moment experienced in person.
As photographers, it’s also very easy for us to bring our cameras with us everywhere–but the ability to separate yourself from your camera is something that should be practiced. Indeed, no photographer is their camera, and while some of us like to use it as a conversation starter, life itself should be experienced and your camera shouldn’t get in the way of that. The reason for this is because it can actually help to make you a better photographer.
Whether you’re a hobbyist or not, the importance of moments in life is so important to our growth as human beings and they can even come back to help us as photographers and artists. By experiencing moments as a human being, we can learn to convey emotions and expressions through images. This is part of why it’s so imperative that the mind set is more about experiencing life than it is to be so busy trying to document it that you not only perhaps miss the moment on camera but also in real life.
A concert isn’t meant to be experienced through a viewfinder, but instead in a room or venue that is all encompassing.
Of course, professional photographers know this–as sometimes they’re probably all camera’d out so to speak. But for the hobbyist that loves to shoot images, it’s rather fun to get out and shoot–I’ve done it too as all my personal work is done with film. However, it took me a while to learn to put the camera down and instead to just experience life. If you’re around family or friends who are pressuring you to take images, it’s also a matter of learning how to say no and how you’ll take images when you see fit.
And again, this lets you be more discerning about shooting.
Just think to yourself: when you go back home and upload your images to your computer and into Lightroom, how many do you end up deleting from the workflow? How many actually end up being shared or published by you? By being more discerning and focusing more on the humanistic moments in life, you can yield more keeper shots rather than throw away shots.
All of this, comes back to learning when to just put the camera down and experience the moment instead of trying to capture it.
