Photos

Married in 1977 we have a book of twenty wedding photographs. Yes. You heard me. Twenty. I have a lot of special memories about that day, mainly because I got to concentrate on it.

There's an article knocking around from the New Yorker. It suggests that in the future we will only look at things in order to photograph them.

I have in my possession one photograph which worries me immensely and tells me the danger of such a future.

Two weeks ago I baptised a couple of lads at church. It was a great experience and the crowd (outside on a cool March morning) watched and cheered. I baptised by immersion in a large paddling pool.

Now such a baptism involves carefully, and pastorally, making sure the candidates are fully under the water. I try not to scare them or bully them.

But one photo clearly shows me holding one lad underwater by the throat. There can be no doubt. 

Except there is. Because the crowd will tell you I did not do that. It is a passing shot. It caught my hand moving position and froze it. And there lies the danger. Not from photoshop, although that is dangerous enough, but from thinking you have captured reality when you have created it.

Try and record reality with your own eyes and brain and then see if the photographs remind you of it. This ship may have sailed.

Looking Up

Not balloon fest yet (that's August I think) but one or two are getting some preparatory air miles in.

Ventures

There's a chain on the high street these days called Ventures. It looks like a photographer's studio shop with funk but it is much more and much less than that.

We (Liz and I) paid £25 for an hour's studio time. This entitles us to one 7" x 5" picture after the hour in the studio.

The hour in the studio was great fun as we were put through a number of scenarios and activities in a variety of clothes - not shoes though. As shoe-lovers we thought carefully about our choice of footware only to be told to take them off. It feels weird wearing business suits with no shoes on. We had to plead for a shot with shoes on at the end.

Now here's the thing. The only preview of our shots will be a projected display, set to music, in a week's time. We will see no other proofs. The shots will not be available to us electroncally (so no new blog picture yet). We can only buy them in certain formats for living room display at costs of up to £2,000 each. An album of fifteen shots is £850 or so. We can't use them to send all our Christmas card receivers a nice picture of us. Stop tittering.

So we will see all these amazing images, which will almost certainly be better than any we have ever seen before, and will find our heart-strings tugged to want to buy them.

If you are a relatively poor family, passing the shop, and see the great family portraits in the window and the £25 price for a family introductory offer, you are probably going to end up making a decision to over-spend. Yes folks, the price list includes the credit terms.

We will probably over-spend. We can afford to make over-spending decisions these days. I could buy a new car within my Mastercard limit. But just beware of this highly skilled, customer-focused retail experience, gang. They'll get you. In the nicest posible way.

Liz said that for quality time staring into each other's eyes for an hour £25 was worth the money and we should do it every week.