[rapnie]

Carrying a camera around at all times killed the value of photographs to large extent. I know people who come home from a one week vacation with 100's of pictures, that are never looked at again, and which spoiled all the moments where one could really enjoy the scene. Music concerts where nearly all the crowd film the concert and mostly miss the experience by doing so, is another example.

[Gigachad]

I don’t think it’s having a camera that killed it, it’s that most people stopped printing their photos. Most people have thousands of poorly sorted and duplicate photos on their phone which aren’t very enjoyable to scroll through.

I went and sorted through all my photos and printed out the best ones to pin up on a board. I love looking at them and everyone who comes over finds it interesting to look through the photos on the wall too.

[rapnie]

Yes, you explained better. It is having the camera always with you and the abundance of photos that are the result, which for most people including me are too much and too boring to sort out. I find myself in the opposite situation now, when at a happening or event I take no photos at all, because I came to hate taking them. Feel it is not worth spoiling the moment. But that means not recording the valuable moments for later, so I may come to regret that at old age.

[Gigachad]

I started taking an old digicam with me to events. I don’t ask people for a photo for them to pose, I just capture as it was before they notice.

The old flash photography combined with candid authentic expressions is really refreshing to see again. The phone camera and look is just so overdone that it’s boring. Taking photos with an old tech and different focal length feels fresh and fun. I don’t post these on social media, I just print them and share the pics directly with the person, everyone has loved it.

There’s also a delayed gratification aspect. I can’t just post these from my phone as soon as I take them. I have to go home, take the sd card out, and copy them over before I can share them. I think there’s something to be said for just slowing down and enjoying the limitations.

[rapnie]

I like that, and I heard it is becoming a bit of a trend where people also leave their phone at home, and more deliberately choose the precious moments to capture. Nice.

[eszed]

I took essentially no photos in my twenties (long before phone cameras) for exactly this reason - and, in the short term, absolutely did remember events better than the folks who were constantly looking for their next digicam shot. I'm now living the long-term of that, though, and regret that I have nothing "tangible" to show my wife and kid, or even to re-spark my own memory, about all the amazing things I did back then.

I'm a bit more intentional now: I don't pull out my (phone) camera all that often, but I try to look for something that will represent - not record (that's impossible), but spark a memory of - the moment later. By the way, people are more important for this than things, or "the thing" itself. I actually think the selfie brigade are on the right track, for all that they may become annoying by overdoing it.