Random Redditor asks: Has the shift to most photos being taken on smart phones positively impacted you? Do you believe there are downsides? Has shifting from physical albums to digital photos been positive for you? How have your habits changed? Do you think it effects how preserve culture, memories, and legacy?
Yes. Photos on smart phones are more convenient than predecessors. It’s been a net positive:
- Photos are automatically tagged with a location and date. Previous digital-only cameras didn’t do that. I have a bunch of photos from Cycle Canada without location. I would often sneak in an extra photo of a sign (or as in the cover image, make it part of the photo) to help me identify.
- Photos are (sorta) searchable. The phone does an eerily good job matching people. More recently, photos have become searchable by terms or text in the background. Last week, while looking in my library for “hamburger,” it flagged a photo I had taken of a food truck in Prague, translating the menu item for “Mexican-style burgers.”
- Instant feedback. When I first started taking photos in the late 70s, there would be a really long wait until I used up all 36* photos in the camera roll, dropped it off for developing and printing. (*I got good at loading the roll to eke out a couple of extra photos.) The delay impeded my learning how to frame shots, take advantage of lighting, etc. That improved a bit with all-digital. However, the phone now gives me the ability to make on-the-fly adjustments that weren’t present before.
- The incremental cost of taking a photo is negligible. (See above.) I now take a lot more photos, which has encouraged experimentation that I probably wouldn’t have as not-really-an-amateur photographer. I can also delete stuff I don’t like with ease.
- Phone-based let you send to a friend – or upload to email, add to a geocaching log, etc. Just could not do this with an early 00s digital camera.
- Having photos on the cloud means I can recall events faster. The downside is I now have to pay for the cloud storage. And compared to Ye Olde Filme, I don’t have boxes of these taking up storage space.
The downside:
- We occasionally would have photos printed and framed, then displayed in our stairway. The convenience of digital led to me stopping that ~2005. While I could theoretically print from phone, it would be pretty expensive ink-wise and would likely need a couple of tries to get correct.
- Cloud storage is a subscription. Apple charges ~$3/month for 200Gb of iCloud storage.