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I started taking an old digicam with me to events. I don’t ask people for a photo for them to pose, I just capture as it was before they notice.

The old flash photography combined with candid authentic expressions is really refreshing to see again. The phone camera and look is just so overdone that it’s boring. Taking photos with an old tech and different focal length feels fresh and fun. I don’t post these on social media, I just print them and share the pics directly with the person, everyone has loved it.

There’s also a delayed gratification aspect. I can’t just post these from my phone as soon as I take them. I have to go home, take the sd card out, and copy them over before I can share them. I think there’s something to be said for just slowing down and enjoying the limitations.

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I like that, and I heard it is becoming a bit of a trend where people also leave their phone at home, and more deliberately choose the precious moments to capture. Nice.
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I took essentially no photos in my twenties (long before phone cameras) for exactly this reason - and, in the short term, absolutely did remember events better than the folks who were constantly looking for their next digicam shot. I'm now living the long-term of that, though, and regret that I have nothing "tangible" to show my wife and kid, or even to re-spark my own memory, about all the amazing things I did back then.

I'm a bit more intentional now: I don't pull out my (phone) camera all that often, but I try to look for something that will represent - not record (that's impossible), but spark a memory of - the moment later. By the way, people are more important for this than things, or "the thing" itself. I actually think the selfie brigade are on the right track, for all that they may become annoying by overdoing it.

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