Posted: Saturday, June 17, 2006 7:00 pm
Remember when people only took pictures at birthday parties, family vacations and baby christenings?
Not anymore.
Now everything is photo worthy, thanks to the digital camera.
I currently have photos of the underside of my kitchen sink, several shots of my medicine cabinet with the door ajar and two close-ups of a stranger standing in line at a local coffee shop on my digital dance card.
I have plans for all of these photos.
Just not in the pages of a photo album.
I’ve taken to carrying my digital camera with me wherever I go. Sure, the world is full of wonderful, beautiful, inspiring images that need to be preserved forever.
But, I’m not framing sunsets in my viewfinder. My camera is a tool to make my life easier.
The other day I took it along to the hardware store.
Excuse me, I said, flagging down a clerk. I’d like to show you something.
I fiddled with the on button.
Just a sec.
Then I fumbled a bit more, until I’d cued up the proper photo, like a new mom with a baby brag book.
Now, see, these are the pipes under the left side of my sink.
And these are the pipes on the right.
The young man in the red vest glanced at the one-inch screen I held under his nose.
I don’t think it’s code, I said, passing on what my friend at work had told me after I showed HIM my sink pipes.
The clerk didn’t seem impressed.
He didn’t even really seem to see the point of the pictures. Perhaps he couldn’t see the unique configuration of my plumbing on that tiny screen, although it seemed perfectly clear to me.
I bought a 12-foot drain snake and put the camera back in my bag.
A few days later I noticed a young woman with great hair standing in line for a mocha.
Fortunately, I still had my camera handy.
Excuse me, I said. This might sound odd, but I’m wondering if I could take a picture of your hair?
She didn’t seem the least bit put out.
Even when I asked her to turn sideways for another view.
Could you tip your head a little bit? A little bit more. Perfect.
I’m not the only one making life easier with a camera.
Like that dress. Click.
A couch that might look nice in your living room. Snap.
Need the license plate number of the guy who cut you off in traffic?
Grab the Kodak.
When there’s no film to pay for why be judicious?
The digital possibilites are endless.
The lovely salmon piccata, artfully arranged with julienne carrots and radishes carved into tiny daisies? Wouldn’t the gals in the dinner club love to see that!
Those shoes, that T-shirt, the odd mole between your toes. (The next time you bump into a dermatologist at a cocktail party you could whip out the camera and get an opinion.)
As might be expected, the penchant for obsessive picture taking has led to problems. Nowadays no one has to get past the clerk at the One Hour Photo place, so anything goes.
Plug the camera into the computer and the whole world knows the trapshooting team at Name Your College got drunk last weekend, painted themselves purple and spanked each other with hockey sticks.
If it weren’t so easy to delete what we’re documenting, archeologists would one day have a great record of the daily lives of the 21st-century American.
In my camera they might wonder about the kitchen pipes, the close-ups of short layered haircuts on women in coffeeshops, the open medicine cabinet door. (I thought it might help the hardware store guy see what kind of latch I had.)
Oh, and the many pictures from birthday parties, family vacations and baby christenings, of course.
Those would be self-explanatory.
Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com