You might think that I am reminiscing about the past too often, but I kind of miss the days when cameras were not digital. Very few people used to actually carry a camera and whenever they uncovered the lens cover, the entire gathering used to freeze. A camera roll used to cost us INR 100/- (in 1990s equal to a 1000/- today) and would hardly take 35 shots and an additional 6/- were spend to develop and print the picture. So everybody used to make sure that they were their best when the pictures were taken.
Fast-forward today and cameras are ubiquitous in every hand held device and soon in every glass/spectacles. With digitalization, people don’t give any importance to the photographer (unless he/she is renowned or carrying an expensive D-SLR). I agree that many realistic shots are being taken these days compared to pre-dominantly staged shots taken earlier.
Net result, people still preserve their old film based developed prints. At my home, we do spend time going through old albums of childhood. But most of today’s digital shots are never printed and people are too lazy to even tag their yesterday’s digital shots when they archive it.
A camera is supposed to be a portable device to preserve a moment, occasion or memory. However today it has become a race to fill the hard-disk and rarely gets referred again.
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