Every now and then, I open this drawer and look at the stack of Photo Albums. I pick up a few and flip through the album pages and let the memories dance live in front of me. I smile indulgently, I wonder at the changes, I look at something a bit lovingly… and mostly I am transported back through time and space to many old memories. And I feel happy and rejuvenated at the experience.
And I see my child doing the same too, asking questions, remembering something, sharing his memory of that moment…
Yesterday’s one such happy moment, made me ponder about the changing times, regarding photographs.
Earlier, we had cameras with film roles which could capture 24 or 36 pictures. 
Each shot was taken with care, everybody was asked to smile and look straight into the camera and a perfect shot was taken. As soon as all the pictures were captured, the same was given for developing at a studio and finally the memories of that occasion were sealed and preserved in the album. These albums would give innumerable reasons to remember and cherish, smile and laugh at the memories, to all in the family and friends, relatives and acquaintances.
And today, we have digital cameras. 
No worry of the expensive film roles and with the memory card in place, you can click a million pictures at one go. Click, click, click, click till the cows come home! And predominantly, the pictures are clicked one after the other without blinking an eye and each an every expression, movement of the subject(s) is captured. The numbers of images captured are so much so that an animated movie can be made with these pictures. (Animation is created by the illusion of movement, as each drawing differs slightly from the one before it).
And then what happens?
Well, these pictures are either downloaded on to the computer or remain in the memory of the camera… literally captured! Only few in the family or friends get to see them once in a odd while but mostly they remain hidden and mostly forgotten about their very existence. Enough of my friends practice this!!
My Take :
- Today, we have the option of seeing what we have clicked, unlike the earlier commonly used conventional cameras. So click till you get that perfect shot for a subject/setting, even if the number of pictures reach a few 100.
- Download the pictures on your computer.
- Give yourself a few minutes and select the best pictures.
- Save these in a new folder and copy them on a storage device and get them printed at a Studio/Color Lab or print them on your own printer!
Do that and you will love the experience.
There’s no better way to relive your memories than to create a scrapbook taking you through each phase, each stage, each occasion of your life, with family and friends.
So it is, Cheese… Click… Celebrate!!
Celebrate your Memories. 🙂
Image Courtesy : Google Images
75 Responses
i so get in to this mode shilpa; nothing to beat the instant thrill of feel goodness than a connect with the treasured memories; nice post and hey welcome back. hope u had fun time wih aaryan. how was his marathon ?
Wow! You do the same, Priya! I find the experience of seeing old pics so fun and relaxing. Thanks, yes we had a good time together and his Marathon was good, gave him a good learning experience though his House didn’t win the race! 😀
Photography today has dramatically improved socializing, no?
Great take on ‘M’.
Agree, imagine what would Facebook be without pictures! 😀
Welcome back Shilpa, thanks for the trip down the memory lane :-)Cheers, Laxmi
Thank you Laxmi and glad to give you a joy ride 😀
I do print pictures once in a while for hanging on the walls… I have made a frame of pins like in a studio where you can keep changing pics from time to time… ! 🙂
I also have now started gifting all my friends with my pitcures of them or something I like a lot or is related !
The camera has solved the problem of gifts once and for all… nothing like gifting memories eh ! 😀
Gifting memories is the bestest thing! There’s this online album printing portal… you upload pics, make an album from the various options available, write your comments on the pictures too and give the order for printing! The final product is like a coloured book (stapled etc) with your picture pages. And if you gift it to somebody with their pics they’d simply cherish you and the album forever!
I have made it a habit to print selected pictures and I agree, its a wonderful experience Shilpa!
That’s cool, Jaishree! I print my pics every now and then too! 🙂
I still remember the day I bought my first digital camera ! I am not too good at taking prints .. That my Mother’s greatest grouse – That I take pics but never print them !
My sisters are like you and that’s my mother’s grouse for them too! So, my parentys always ask me to somehow take the pics from my sister’s camera and give it to them 😀
I love to scrap book and try to do it off and on – must do it more often and print those pics. thanks for the reminder.
I believe when you print a pic it is enjoyed and cherished by more no. of family and acquaintances and for a longer period of time too 🙂
It’s so true that most of the time all the photos just sit in the hard drive, or worse, in the camera! Since last year, I did prune a lot of blurry and repeated photos and started making year books! At least now, we can open the book and reminisce!
Glad you had a wonderful time with your son! How was the marathon?!
Well said, the pics lying in computer and camera are seen only by the owner and sometimes is not even seen my the immediate family! I liked the concept of year book… will do it from now on! Thanks for sharing that!
Marathon was a good learning experience for him, has become more lean and dark 😀
HeHe..nice idea.Because of the Digital Camera shots deluging my hard-disk – I have stopped clicking bunch pictures. I let others store them now. 😛
And It’s hard to delete any pics because of the memories intact with them.
God, that’s a new one… letting others click and store!! 😀 Cant stop smiling at this 😀
Very nice Shilpa. Photographs really bring back old memories and make us nostalgic.
That’s so very true, Ma’am 🙂
Shilpa, I remember how taking a photo was a family ritual at times. Gawd, a never ending one, because it had to be perfect. Today we are not limited in our possibilities and hence maybe miss the nuances too. But yup, nothing like pictures to brighten a wall or a smile. Great walk down memory lane.
Oh yeah, you remember how the pictures were shot earlier, with everybody standing still and straight and looking straight into the camera and if it was a family pic, the siting and the standing arrangement… And today, we get ourselves clicked in a million ways and rarely like the olden days!! Pictures add so much of a character to a home!
Nice post Shilpa.. I too love to go through the album and become nostalgic. I took 5 small albums of selected photos (stolen from our family album) with photos from my mother’s college days to my college days, with me when I got married and went to my in-law’s place. I also tried to take them to Dubai but I couldn’t because it added to the luggage weight. Even now when I go on vacations, the first thing I do, after reaching there, is to go through the album 🙂
Seena
I know the feeling, Seena! Even we used to do the same when we visited our Mom’s place! 😀
The smiles, the chatter over these pics makes for some amazing time 🙂
our favorite pasttime is flipping through the pages of our albums. And i have so many of them. the collage is a good idea, shilpa.
Oh yes, collage is a good one… I have done 3 collages so far… one which has pics of the 2 of us, one which has sonny boy and the third one of my parents and we sisters! 🙂
i do that at times too. Taking a peek at my childhood snaps and asking my mother questions about the little me. your post brought back memories. And yes its true that the instant photos are rarely rejoiced later. scrapbook , as you said is the perfect option 🙂
I can relate to what you said, Maliny, as my son also asks a million questions about the pics that he sees in our albums 🙂
I love the digital format. We can endlessly take pictures of every minor event without worrying about the cost of getting them developed. Growing up we hardly had any pictures of my childhood. But printing out a few good ones for the albums gives instant access. We do store our online albums neatly so that kids will have a veritable cache of memories when they grow up :).
That’s a cool idea too, Rachna! Where do you store your albums online? Picasa??
Puritans still swear by the film and the old cameras.The black & white films that needed the dark room for processing. Then the colours came with the sleek machines that developed the pictures in minutes.
It is so much convenient now. But some say it has robbed the development of genuine talent and perseverance .
But as you mentioned memories are laid thread bare and in print that really matters .
You are absolutely right, Anil. The old cameras and technique was good, but they didnt give us the flexibility of seeing what was clicked! 🙂
U spoke my heart. How many ever pics we take and how much ever my Nikon makes me happy I always love the hard copied album. These days other than the wedding album nothing is the hard copy
Like U told its good to get prints of few
I always do it. Hy five 😀
HENCE I WS craving for HP Color printer during indiblogger meet ;P
I didnt get one though
Glad we think alike on this one, Afshan! 🙂
I still look at all the pics we have at home, such sweet memories. The other day I was surprised to see that we still have a photograph of my grandparents getting married.. he he 🙂
But then, the digital age aint that bad either.
Great post Shilpa.
Bhavya
Just Another Blog
Wow… pics of grandparents wedding… now that’s a treasure! 🙂
We can also put the pictures on our blogs/FB walls and revisit them later on. Sometimes, I visit the blog-posts that contain photos I took before 2-3 years, and the memories are still fresh. I would love to see them after 20-30 years 🙂
Destination Infinity
Yes, blogs, FB, online albums are good way to store pics digitally! Agree, the idea is to see them for a long long time! 🙂
Hmm I too should start printing these pics! They are more a treasure then…
Cool… go for it, Meena, you will enjoy the journey 🙂
So true. In the old days, clicking pictures was an event, which began with buying the camera and the roll, and never ended, since we continued to derive joy from viewing the pictures. TOday we click and click, and rarely look back at the pictures.
I know the feeling, Cynthia… Today it is click, store and forget! 😐
Keeeping a few hard copies helps in reliving the memories:)
Very true 🙂
My sister and my son don’t just take a hundred photos in a go, it’s often thousands. However, after a thousand takes, they have great memories.
LOL @ Thousands :))
Great idea, I might do just that for my Mother’s birthday 🙂 thanks
That’s a cool idea. Do that, Sulekha, am sure she will love it 🙂
I love looking at the old pictures my parents have in well-preserved albums, Shilpa. Thanks for the reminder that I should create some hard copies too!
All the best, Corinne 🙂
True, albums are for keeps. And i do like the modern digital photography, you can do so many things to enhance a badly taken picture with Photoshop, and you have the choice of sharing all the pictures with friends and relatives, and also reliving the past through pictures. It is indeed amazing. Gone are the days of taking pictures and waiting with bated breath for the pictures to come from the studio, and be disappointed if some of them have not come out well. Whereas, now we can delete and hone our skills in photography, by deleting and taking, doing the same as many times till we become almost perfect.
I love this modern day invention. Cheers to something so useful!
Oh yes, I love this modern day invention a lot too 😀
I love going through my boxes of old pictures, letters, and cards. And since my a-z theme is memories, it has been especially beneficial these past few weeks 🙂
Wow, you do the same too, Megan!! That’s cool and I love reading your stories about your childhood and friends, family and the good times 🙂
I love the digital age. I can take as many pictures as I want 🙂
Clicking so many pics at one ago is truly a big advantage of this digital age! 🙂
Good Idea, 🙂
Am planning to buy an external hard disk just to preserve my pics.
Also, I want to digitize my old albums…
🙂
http://www.imaginerahul.blogspot.in/2012/08/the-photo-album-by-rahul-sharma.html
🙂
Wow! A EHD for pics… super like 🙂
At our place, we love our albums! Such emotions they bring back! Yes, now all the pictures end up being saved in the d drive. The feeling of taking out and browsing the albums of childhood, of mom-dad’s shaadi…priceless!
Now do that for yourself too :))
We could not wait for the pictures to develop and get printed. I have stacks of albums…love the memories.
Same story here! 🙂
Ah! Memories! I love looking at the old photographs,some of them are so funny, I look like a chipmunk. I do have scrapbooks, each separate for friends and family. It’s a nice feeling when you go through old ones. I’m getting an analog camera soon – a Lomo one, somehow can’t get out of its charm.
I know, we all looked a bit ‘different’ then 😀
Memories are indeed worth preserving! I don’t print pictures though, but my mom still does. I think it’s cute.
It is… and you must do that too Dee 🙂
Yes …you are so right Shilpa …the albums have their own old world charm 🙂 But again as Shail said we can go on clicking endlessly in the digital age 🙂
My belief… click, click and click and click… and then print! 😀
I love the albums, whenever I start sorting things out, and if i come across albums, I just sit down and forget where I am, I get easily carried away with albums, which brings in so many memorable moments. Now I have soft copies too, so when I come across some folders, I simply keeping looking at it and relive those moments, especially of my children. Thanks for the lovely post.
It is exactly the same story this side too 🙂
shilpa,
I have a photograph of our family which covers our four generations.
It is a great feeling
4 generations! That’s quite a lot of memories! 🙂
Also I remember sometimes in those 24 and 36 one could find two or three extra photos and that used to such a happy moment. My mother would always say, “try try there should be one more” and if it turned out to be true she would become super happy…. aah sweet pleasures of life…
Pictures are the only way of re living the past moment…well these digital cameras have made it so easy for us….lovely post Shilpa… 🙂