I have been taking photos for far too many years to count. This has been one of my passions and has allowed me to see the world in a different way. Over the years my photography has changed with a growing interest in landscapes and this great country of ours.
But I am also starting to question what memories I will leave behind. Several years ago my mother passed away and I had the job of pulling together a slide show of the memories of our family. Sitting going through old slides and photo albums, a flood of memories came back bringing a tear to the eye.
But what will the experience be in 50 years time? With the creation of digital photos we now have thousands of images in hard drives or on flash drives. I cant imagine these working or being looked at in 50 years when I am no longer around (remember floppy disks?).
Many of us also put these images on social sharing sites such as Facebook but the fleeting nature of the images amongst thousands of other posts about cats and politics means they are lost in a global sea of data. While there are dedicated photo sites such as Flikr the question is - will they still around?
While I use all of these, I must admit to being traditional as I also create hard copy books of most of my travels. hopefully these will survive in an attic to be dusted off by my great grand children.
This also leads me to the question of what photos I used for the slide show. They were not images of scenic landscapes, waterfalls of wildlife. They were photos of family and friends, my mum at work, playing golf and having a good time.
So what does this mean? While i will continue to take photos of this great country, i will spend a bit more time capturing my family enjoying the great outdoor. I will even try to get some of me in the photos (difficult as I am the photographer most of the time).
Next time you are travelling think - what meaningful image do you want to be passed on to future generations?