Sunday 8 April 2012

Who me?



George Szirtes, always one for a good idea, has an interesting post on his blog under the title: Being photographed . . . (see: blog updates).

Why do we keep the photos we keep and discard the ones we discard is what he wants us to think about, and being George Szirtes much more besides.

Do we keep the best of them merely to boost the ego? Do we get rid of the worst because they make us look worse than we really think we should look?

I must admit I'd never thought of this topic as a blog subject; but having now considered it I see that it does interest me.

As far as I am aware I have in the course of time habitually deleted or thrown away the out of focus, the boring and uninteresting, and the images where the light was too dim or was overwhelmingly bright etc.; in other words the technically bad compositions.

Unlike George Szirtes I have never had the idea that my nose chin and neck wouldn't pass a Hollywood screen test. In my case its my ears, George!

A child once remarked to her teacher: Mr Williams has the biggest ears I have ever seen!

But nevertheless I have never consciously worried about how my ears appear on a photograph - not since junior school watch-the-birdie days at any rate!

Below are 3 photos of me, all selected completely at random - I come complete with 3 noses and 5 ears!

I like 'A' the best. There I see something of my brother.


A

B

C

When all is said and done it's not the size of our ears but it's what we have working between our ears that matters. And that is something one can't easily photograph.

6 comments:

  1. I'm a never delete anything sort of hoarder even though I've lost a lot of stuff - I've old photos that seemed something nothing but modern software has been able to get the best out of them and breathe new life.

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  2. I have given this some thought too Gwil and have decided that the photos I keep are the ones that bring back the happy memories.

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  3. Modern technology is amazing Gerald. Somebody told me the other day if you know one of colours on your old black and white photo there is some softwear that can colour in all the rest of the picture.
    I have the usual box of snaps and some albums but nothing of any age.

    My mum has the old stuff. My dad brought blurry b/w photos back from India from the war, pictures of tigers and steam locos and distant mountains and groups of men in uniform under aeroplane wings - they'd be nice ones to enhance - but from what I remember they were taken with a Box Brownie and not much bigger than large postage stamps.

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  4. Thanks Pat, you always have wonderful photos on your blog. I feel I'm down on the farm. I can smell the dung. Hear the clank of buckets. The dog barking. The tractor on the lane. Crows. Even a ladybird I saw.

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  5. Carry on, Sir, you're a phenomenal burst of excellent zest among life's drear. I especially like the time you told me about the man who thought he was an orange.

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  6. Many thanks for your kind words Mr Owl.

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