Saturday, June 18, 2005
If a picture paints a thousand words...
It occurred to me that I’ve been writing a lot of narrative blog entries lately. A little rotation helps to keep things fresh (no, I’m not talking about relationships) so this entry will be more opinion-based, editorial if you like. If this blog entry offends you, you are welcome to register your complaint for a nominal fee of SGD$10.
You will notice that this blog has very little in the way of pictures, and when there are pictures they are usually of the items being described. This runs contrary to the trend of many blogs I’ve seen. Not that there’s anything wrong with plastering blogs with pictures, but I don’t do it and here’s why.
I’ve never been much of a picture person. Standing there and posing for photos has never been my forte. I remember early vacations with my family when my mother, a die-hard trigger-happy camera addict, had to cajole, convince and coerce me into standing next to something that I hardly cared about and smile for the camera. Usually the smile didn’t come out that convincing in the pictures, and not many of them made the final cut for the album. You know, back in the days when we actually waited for the film to get developed before seeing the picture?
It’s inexplicable, but somehow I just get a feeling of awkwardness standing in front of a camera and trying to pose just like that. Group photos are usually alright with me, sometimes enjoyable with the right crowd, but trying to stand alone in front of a camera and not look silly simply feels weird. It’s almost like those times when some people thought that cameras would steal a person’s soul when he was photographed. I know better than that of course, but still it doesn't work out for me.
As you can probably guess, I’m not cut out to be a model. Most of you would probably think so even without knowing my aversion for cameras.
Don’t get me wrong though, I do appreciate fine photography. I love looking at National Geographic, photography books and anywhere else where I can find beautiful photos. Many times, I've come across photos that simply took my breath away through the vivid or simple images and colours (or lack thereof). In fact, that could be the very reason behind my aversion to being photographed. When I think of all those vacation photos I’ve seen, they don’t do much justice to the monuments or scenery depicted. In fact, it’s almost narcissistic the way some people just fill up album after album with pictures of themselves posing with whatever it was. To me, a photograph serves as a way to portray either a person or scene in a manner that inspires awe or wonder, but vacation photos usually fail miserably in both aspects.
Another school of thought is that those photos help preserve the memories of the place or event. To each his own, but to me, if something is worth remembering, I won’t need photos to remember them by. I also prefer to use a vivid sense of imagination to recreate something that a 2-dimensional picture can’t. A lot of things in daily life these days leave little to the imagination, and it's a brain muscle that could become flab if not exercised.
Losing control of your imagination can be a source of trouble as well, but that’s beyond the scope of this entry.
Besides, the power of the written word is something being increasingly overlooked. This may sound weird coming from someone who studies mechanical engineering, reads mainly newspapers, infrequently reads non-fiction books and thinks that Shakespeare is a great conspiracy by Literature teachers (no hard feelings though, I did learn something from them), but in this day and age of media delivery requiring almost no thought on the part of the receiver, the written language has become antiquated, obselete even. This blog serves as an avenue for me to sustain whatever writing skill I have left before atrophy sets in. Using pictures excessively without making a point would defeat that purpose.
Speaking of blogs, here’s one by a California resident whose entries are incisive and thought-provoking. We happen to have a Leona Valley trip in common, and his account will give you much more fascinating details about the place, facts that I wish I had known before I made the trip. It also offers a vastly different perspective into life for most of us, and I believe everyone can benefit from one of those.
You will notice that this blog has very little in the way of pictures, and when there are pictures they are usually of the items being described. This runs contrary to the trend of many blogs I’ve seen. Not that there’s anything wrong with plastering blogs with pictures, but I don’t do it and here’s why.
I’ve never been much of a picture person. Standing there and posing for photos has never been my forte. I remember early vacations with my family when my mother, a die-hard trigger-happy camera addict, had to cajole, convince and coerce me into standing next to something that I hardly cared about and smile for the camera. Usually the smile didn’t come out that convincing in the pictures, and not many of them made the final cut for the album. You know, back in the days when we actually waited for the film to get developed before seeing the picture?
It’s inexplicable, but somehow I just get a feeling of awkwardness standing in front of a camera and trying to pose just like that. Group photos are usually alright with me, sometimes enjoyable with the right crowd, but trying to stand alone in front of a camera and not look silly simply feels weird. It’s almost like those times when some people thought that cameras would steal a person’s soul when he was photographed. I know better than that of course, but still it doesn't work out for me.
As you can probably guess, I’m not cut out to be a model. Most of you would probably think so even without knowing my aversion for cameras.
Don’t get me wrong though, I do appreciate fine photography. I love looking at National Geographic, photography books and anywhere else where I can find beautiful photos. Many times, I've come across photos that simply took my breath away through the vivid or simple images and colours (or lack thereof). In fact, that could be the very reason behind my aversion to being photographed. When I think of all those vacation photos I’ve seen, they don’t do much justice to the monuments or scenery depicted. In fact, it’s almost narcissistic the way some people just fill up album after album with pictures of themselves posing with whatever it was. To me, a photograph serves as a way to portray either a person or scene in a manner that inspires awe or wonder, but vacation photos usually fail miserably in both aspects.
Another school of thought is that those photos help preserve the memories of the place or event. To each his own, but to me, if something is worth remembering, I won’t need photos to remember them by. I also prefer to use a vivid sense of imagination to recreate something that a 2-dimensional picture can’t. A lot of things in daily life these days leave little to the imagination, and it's a brain muscle that could become flab if not exercised.
Losing control of your imagination can be a source of trouble as well, but that’s beyond the scope of this entry.
Besides, the power of the written word is something being increasingly overlooked. This may sound weird coming from someone who studies mechanical engineering, reads mainly newspapers, infrequently reads non-fiction books and thinks that Shakespeare is a great conspiracy by Literature teachers (no hard feelings though, I did learn something from them), but in this day and age of media delivery requiring almost no thought on the part of the receiver, the written language has become antiquated, obselete even. This blog serves as an avenue for me to sustain whatever writing skill I have left before atrophy sets in. Using pictures excessively without making a point would defeat that purpose.
Speaking of blogs, here’s one by a California resident whose entries are incisive and thought-provoking. We happen to have a Leona Valley trip in common, and his account will give you much more fascinating details about the place, facts that I wish I had known before I made the trip. It also offers a vastly different perspective into life for most of us, and I believe everyone can benefit from one of those.
# posted by BloozeGit @ 3:35 pm 
