Is Everything Really a Photo Op?

Is Everything Really a Photo Op? 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I obviously live by that creed. Yep, I’m guilty of being a picture hoarder. I take pictures of EVERYTHING. Call me vain, call me narcissistic, call me crazy (no joke – one Canadian Doctor has actually claimed that taking pictures of food may be a sign of mental illness). Whateverrrr, I LOVE taking pictures of everything, all the time. Why? Simply because I must that a snapshot of life as sits happening, and notwithstanding, taking pictures is just plain fun.

I have an ungodly collection of pictures from this year’s summer vacay alone. I don’t always go back and delete the blurry or unsightly ones or even those of people I don’t know from Adam. The trouble with this wonderful new digital technology, that allows us to take 100s of superfluous pictures, is that we take it for granted and just go bat crazy snapping away at everything still and moving. Remember the days when we actually had photos developed, anxiously waiting to pick them up a few days later? When we joyfully placed them into hard copy albums? I sure do. As evidence of those long gone days, I have a trunk-load of photo albums in storage back home, collecting dust and providing a bountiful, free buffet to booklice.

So for now, I have a trillion digital photos and video clips clogging my PC and Facebook account, not to mention littering and floating like driftwood in the digital stratosphere. To make matters worse, now that I’m blogging – I take even more pics. Nothing can help beef up a post more than a few good photos. It was easier putting a camel through the eye of a needle than picking pics for this blog post. 😀 AND, when you’re an ex-pat living in such an intriguing place like Dubai, you take even more pictures of all those peculiar and wonderful things we encounter on a daily basis.

I’m sure I’m not the only one, but sometimes I take pictures of odd things or things that don’t seem to have any meaning. My husband looks at me like I’m delirious, but I know there is something about that thing that calls me or tells a story. Or it’s just plain cute. It can be a sign, a toilet, a single workers boot in a refinery’s parking lot, which is about to be closed after 40 years of being in business (true story, don’t ask me where that picture is),  a camel, a chicken, an exotic Arabian dress, Indian male nationals holding hands, our beautiful beaches back home, my food (yes, I’m one of those people who takes pics of the food I eat or cook, so go ahead and commit me to the funny farm), curious supermarket products, signs,  and just about everything we saw in Amsterdam along with other random travel moments. And we can’t forget one of the most photographed structures in the world: The Burj Al Arab. I have tons of those and so does every other expat in Dubai. And finally, what can be more precious and cherished than pictures of our children, our friends and family, and our beloved spouses or significant others.

No matter how wonderful your pictures turn out, nothing can capture what was felt at the moment you took it.

And then there are some corny pictures that I can only dream to take one day: Floating on the Dead Sea, trying to make the London guardsmen smile, doing the Haka in New Zealand (or at least pretending to), making it to the top of Adam’s Peak, my very own picture of Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan (taken by me) and perhaps even doing the Gangnam-style dance in Gangnam, Seoul.

Every once in a while we do go through our pictures. It reminds us that life sure passes by us really fast. It’s my only hope that our kids and their kids will want to peruse all that digital debris after we’ve made our grand exit out of this world. For now, I’ll just keep on clicking.

What have been some of your favorite pictures ever taken?

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
― Marc Riboud

Do Not Disturb Tassels, Zurich Hotel