So why do you push that button?

There are some journeys where we know where we are going.... Others the journey is to discover where we are going.  So the question is a challenge why are you clicking that button. Why do you choose to take pictures? Are you trying to record a moment? Trying to present a new perspective? Are you informing us of something we would be delighted, horrified or perplexed by?

Why ask? Because maybe in the morass of pictures we are all collecting what becomes more evident  is that we don't know why, but this relentless picture taking  has become a force of habit. It's what we do when we are in a situation. Makes us feel that now we have it captured, we can move on. But was it really captured, do those smiles actually look real? Does that sunset look anything like it really looked like? How many times do you actually go back and look at those pictures you took 3 or more years ago? and if you find yourself saying you don't, what makes you believe the ones your taking now you will look back on  three years hence.

 There are some dazzling composed pictures that artfully show us a window into something. But are they really moving us?  Do we find that we want to show those pictures again and again to people because the mood is so universal the setting so life like that it acts a model of life that we need to learn from. Or the reason we do it because our lives lack any real meaning and we want some validation in the nods and "likes" of Facebook.

Maybe the questions seem a little offensive after all we can't expect every shot to convey every tangible feeling and composition possible.  Is this navel gazing really  worth anything?  Most of us are walking around cameras with us so regularly that we almost  assume that we will be able to catch anything that is our whimsy and I think we have.  It has reduced our appreciation of what a picture really represents, its ability to  convey not just a place in space but a irretrievable moment in  time as well. 

Sometimes  you have to reduce the amount to energize the sensitivity. No one is suggesting we go back to the days of the roll of 24   but we should ponder what became lost when we post 24 pictures of the same image because we can.