It's so inviting.
Other than developing them, and perhaps preparing a poster from a photo which
we found particularly impressive, there wasn't much we could do with the photographs
that we got from a traditional roll of film. But digital cameras present us not
only with the possibility of taking more and more photographs. They also permit
us to do our own editing of them. PhotoShop may be relatively difficult to learn
to use, but considerably simpler (and cheaper) tools are available today, such
that it's hard to find an excuse not to edit our photos. The problem is that once
we start cropping them, fixing the red-eye, maybe doing a bit of touching up on
somebody's hair, it's hard to stop. Why not add an effect here or there? But we
really don't have the time for this. In the end we may find ourselves longing
for the old days when we had less control over the final product - but weren't
overwhelmed by the time-consuming possibilities that do-it-yourself editing offer
us.
Go to: Today it's simply ... leave them on the hard drive,
or
Go to: But what do we do with those?, or
Go to: The pleasure is in the doing, or
Go to: Basically, it's a feeling, or
Go to: To hold in our hands.