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May 07, 2005
Is it time to go on an image diet?
Under the heading "Stop them before they shoot again", the New York Times catalogues one of those thoroughly modern maladies: the tendency of some people when they get a digital camera to point and shoot and send ... and shoot and send ... and shoot and send.
You can empathise, can you not, with Suzanne Weber?
THE baby pictures just kept coming. At least once a month Suzanne Weber opened her e-mail to find the same friend had sent a link to as many as 50 pictures, often including multiple shots of the same child at the same moment at slightly different angles. Finally Ms. Weber, who enjoys the occasional digital baby snapshot as much as anyone, stopped responding, and the friend, taking the hint, stopped sending.
Ms. Weber, who estimates she will view more than 1000 digital pictures this year of friends, family and their assorted offspring, has some heart-felt advice for the undiscriminating snapper:
"Edit your pictures, people."
A writer in Brooklyn whose pen name is Anita Liberty, she suggests no more than three pictures by e-mail, no more than 12 to an online "album," no albums more than twice a year, with possible exceptions only for grandparents and best friends.
What with America's amateur photographers producing 28 billion digital pictures last year, 6 billion more than they shot on film - even though only half as many own a digital camera - some critics are suggesting that the power of images is at risk of being diluted by sheer volume.
We can't agree. Great images are timeless, and even the merely good can live in the memory. But capturing those sort of images requires a certain amount of knowledge and skill, patience and sometimes luck. We hope we can contribute somewhat to the art of taking pictures that will make the people who see them want to see more.
Posted by cw at May 7, 2005 05:10 PM
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