Pump Up The Volume

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53611153@N00/2337887067

 

 

 

No, this post isn't a tribute to the eclectic 80's band MARRS, although their tune was mighty catchy.  Those of you that know me likely assumed that this post had something to do with music, as I have been known to spend too much time and money on live music - but no, you won't find that in this post either ;-)

This post has grown out of some reflecting that I've been doing over the summer about media literacy and the increasing need to make sense of the wealth of information and content that we're bombarded with on a daily basis.  The times, they are a changin', and we need to really think about how we are preparing ourselves and our children to embrace these changes...

I haven't spent a whole lot of time at home this summer and my adventures have taken me through many diverse landscapes.  Through photography, I've tried to freeze all of these moments in time to preserve my memories of the places I've been and the people I've seen.  I've really played the role of a tourist well - I've had my camera by my side every step of the way. 

5 weeks & 4300 images later...

What do I have to show for all of these adventures?  Far too much to fill an old-school photo album.  But I do have plenty of material to create some captivating photo slideshows.  My wife has a tonne of quality images to use in her digital scrapbooking.  I can produce, upload & share videos of our adventures, or burn DVD's chronicling our summer holidays for family and friends.  All of these things require the use of the media that we've been acquiring along the way.

It hasn't always been this way...

You see, we got a new camera.  Our first digital SLR - a Canon Rebel XSi.  We've decided that although we're both amateur photographers, we're ready for more than we can get out of our standard point and shoot cameras.  My wife and I both love this new camera and we've done a great job of 'breaking it in' by shooting a tonne of photos.  But 4300 shots - really?  There's no need for that!  To me, this just exemplifies the way our lives are changing as a result of the media-rich culture in which we live, work & play.

Rewind about 13 years...

Image Source: http://sajidgidda.com/life/the-descent-of-the-photographer

This was it - my first digital camera, a Sony Mavica.  I fell in love with this camera instantly for the ease of use and convenience of seeing and sharing my photos instantly.  This was before memory cards & USB cables were commonplace.  All I did was insert a 3.5" floppy disk and start shooting pics.  I could get about fifteen photos onto a floppy disk before I had to eject it & copy the images onto my desktop computer but, hey, it worked.  I carried a stack of floppy disks in that camera bag anywhere I went because I knew I'd need them ;-)

Diluting an art form...

My wife's uncle is a professional photographer.  He's spent much of his life making a living through photography.  As much as I praised the merits of my Sony Mavica digital camera, he simply turned up his nose at it.  He sneered at the thought of digitizing photography.  I vividly remember a conversation we had before the turn of the century about how digital cameras were killing the art of photography.  According to him, digital photography ruined the art because anyone could take perfect pictures.  We set up our shots and snap our pics - if they don't turn out the way we want them, we try again.  We frame them a little differently, we capture our subject in a slightly different pose, or we change the lighting a bit.  The instant feedback that we get from shooting digital photographs can turn all of us into professionals by arming us with the ability to perfect the photos we capture.  This uncle resisted for many years and finally bought his first digital camera about five years ago.  Now, it's all he shoots with ;-)

The way it was...

Remember when you used to have to drop off your rolls of film at the 'photo finishing' store to get them developed?  You'd pick up your prints and excitedly open the envelope to see what you captured.  In most cases, you'd be delighted to find a few shots from a birthday party a few months back, a couple of pictures highlighting a family trip and a few photos featuring friends and family.  One little roll of film could span a few months of your life.  Now, we can easily shoot a hundred images in an afternoon...

The evolution of digital photography really reflects what's been happening with every aspect of technology.  It's crept into nearly every aspect of our lives and we see evidence of it everywhere we turn.  Through digital photography, we now chronicle our lives in far more detail.  Every little experience is captured and preserved.  And we have far better ways of sharing these images than simply tucking them away into albums and putting them up on a shelf.  But with this increased volume we have to have better means of 'filtering' the photos we capture and share.

We're still learning the filtering process.  We're looking for better ways of managing our digital photographs.  We need to find more effective ways of archiving our images so that they can be easily retrieved.  In most cases, we choose only a random sampling of our photos to share through sites like Flickr - so what do we do with all of the other images that don't get shared so publicly? 

Who teaches us how to do these things?  More importantly, who teaches our kids how to manage their digital artifacts?  These skills haven't traditionally been taught in our schools or our classrooms, but they need to be...