“Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease.”
– Anonymous
I agree with that. There is practically not a single day when I don’t photograph something. It can be a tree, a flower, a bird, or a person. For wherever I go, I always carry my iPhone or a small camera to be ready for any opportunity. And because of this uncontrollable addiction of mine, I have collected thousands of snapshots.
The last time I checked, I found 25 627 pictures on my hard drive. That’s significant, especially when you want to retrieve a particular shot. The key to this problem is to carefully identify each picture after each photo session… but sometimes, due to fatigue or any other distraction, I neglect to do this… and I later pay a price for it.
I recently started to gather some shots for a new photobook, and I became painfully aware of this problem. Finding a particular shot in my stash is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack. Apple does a fairly good job with its photo application, but it is not perfect.
Among other constraints, the program is supposed to recognize and identify any familiar face, but it doesn’t, or seldom does. It seems to be partial to just a few people and if I don’t do it myself, a particular shot will be buried forever within a multitude of anonymous people.
My latest (almost completed) project deals with “visages” (faces)… relatively recent and preferably interesting faces. The difficulty is finding such shots. Not everybody photographs well, and I am not inclined to include a bland face in this book just for the sake of political correctness.
Since I usually operate from a distance, I infrequently manage to catch well-defined faces, especially in poorly lit areas. So instead, I search for a well-focused picture and carefully crop the face I am interested in.
Putting a book together is relatively complicated and time-consuming. But I don’t really mind since I have plenty of time on my hands, and since it is something that I enjoy doing.
Now, who gets to be in my book? Most of our club members (if I have good pictures of them) or familiar faces from other clubs. The number of pictures is also a factor, because the more pages in a book, the higher the cost of it. And cost unfortunately is always a consideration…
The chosen title of this book is “Here’s looking at you kid” (wink) and if you are interested in acquiring one, please let me know.
Go forth and photograph!
Alain