Digital Cameras Are Back… Are We Surprised?
Image Courtesy: Strike Magazine Tallahassee
It feels like just yesterday we were sporting Polaroid cameras, personalized by cute stickers and beaded straps. If you’re anything like me, you were buying any gadgets that made you feel a part of an era you, unfortunately, didn’t get to experience.
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It felt nostalgic; as if we were traveling back into our parents’ younger years. In the blink of an eye, Polaroids began to dust, and we’ve resorted to frantically searching our houses for an old digital cameras that may or may not have our baby pictures on them. Yup… you guessed it, that was my last month. I will say, I’m now a digital camera fanatic. I’m sure in two years, we’ll switch over to some other type of gadget that makes us feel cool and nostalgic, but for now, we can appreciate all that digital cameras offer.
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It’s hard to wrap my mind around the attraction people have to older cameras when we have the latest technology at our fingertips. It may have to do with the human desire to acquire things that not everyone has to set us apart from others, even in the slightest way. Or it may be that these cameras remind us of a simpler time; when you weren’t able to see your pictures immediately, influencing you to live more “at the moment” than through the lens of a camera. I like to think of digital and film cameras as a new perspective in which we take an outdated device and add our own modern twist to the art it captures.
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As we know, a digital camera can only hold so many photos before the SIM card fills up. Although it may appear inconvenient, there is beauty within this system because the memories captured can mean so much more; only taking pictures when the moment feels right or when you want to capture a certain time. With an iPhone, you can take as many photos as you please along with having immediate access to them. The latest technology takes away the special aspect of capturing the moment, knowing you get to download and smile at them later. Rather than taking pictures aimlessly, vintage cameras bring us back to a simpler time when we weren’t capturing pictures just for the aesthetic of our Instagram feeds. Additionally, pictures on a digital camera must be uploaded to a computer before being able to access them, creating a sense of excitement while having to wait and allowing us to appreciate the pictures even more after having waited some time.
These blurry, imperfect pictures are arguably better than a high-speed camera that takes crystal clear pictures. These pictures are authentic. After all, there’s a reason vintage cameras continue to make a comeback, and we are just as excited about them as we were in the early 2000s. In a world where we try so hard to make our lives look perfect through a screen, digital cameras bring us back down to earth and remind us of simpler times.
Strike Out,
Writer: Bella Ferretti
Editor: Jayna O
Graphic Designer: Maria Gonzalez
Tallahassee