Hold your Camera Steady

I love Facebook. Well, actually that's overstating it a bit, but I like Facebook. I really do. Keeping up with friends, family and former students is enjoyable. Most people share good things. Many of my fb friends are quite witty and can usually make me smile. Some, of course, bare their souls by ranting angrily and/or inviting us to their latest pity party. Others politicize and proselytize ad nauseum. That's why being able to hide or block those overly annoying posters is handy and one of my favorite features.

But ranters and malcontents notwithstanding, can we talk about sharing photos? Can we focus (pardon the pun) on blurry, dark, and grainy shots? Why? Why do you do it, People? You have to stop. Just because you have a camera and you have cute kids, pets, boyfriends, girlfriends or what have you doesn't mean you have to share every shot. Yes, you took a picture of something cool. You captured a moment in time. It was precious. But if that image didn't come out right, you should delete it. Perhaps you attended an event, a very special event, a shareable event where great things things happened. If you snapped your shutter thirty times, maybe you should share your best five. It's called editing. Editing is a good thing. Let's all try to get better at editing, shall we?

    -There's a long, thoughtful pause here as I decide that I'm not even going to mention selfies.-

Now I know as I write this that I am as guilty as anyone of posting bad pictures. I really do take a lot of crappy photos. I always have and I admit that in the past I shared them. For this I apologize profusely. My dogs are adorable. The view out my back door is spectacular. I think I have a good eye for seeing things that would make a good photograph. However, more often than not  what I get on the screen is not what I saw in my head. Here's just one example.  My living room is very dark so cutesy dog pictures and videos don't come out well when taken there. Believe me I have tried and tried.  It's not the camera. (Well, perhaps if I had a Nikon D4, but I digress/fantasize). It's usually not the picture taker. It's the lighting.  Much as it pains me to miss those funny, one of a kind snapshots, I have stopped. I now realize that in most instances no photo is better than a bad photo.

So my advice to you is quite simple. Hold your camera steady. Look for good light. Think before you click the shutter. If your shot sucks, don't share it. Oh, and don't take pictures of anything you wouldn't want your grandmother to see. Now please excuse me while I go delete a bunch of my pictures. Yes, yes, I am sure I want to delete that one.