Digital Cameras For Amateur Photographers

We all like to capture the moment! Often I wonder if in capturing the moment, we are not losing the experience of the moment? I have grown to accept that it's not that we are losing the experience of the moment, it is more that our experience of the moment has changed.

The interesting thing is while at the harbour in Hout Bay, in "this moment" we are captivated by different things. The word wonderful is often used, but you don't appreciate it until you break down the meaning of each part. The world must be full of wonders, that we can all be in the same spot, yet be attracted to different aspects of the spot at the same time. Everyone is looking in a different direction and taking in that view. Not only are we taking it in, we are capturing it.

I was taking a photograph of the yachts with the cloud covering the mountain. On looking at the image when I got home, I realised how just about everyone (all but one person) in the image is pointing a digital camera in a direction that had them intrigued. Digital cameras are not only easy to use these days, but they are integrated on various devices like a cell phone. It's almost as if we all have one now (a digital camera) and with mobile apps we have access to filters that make any amateur photographer produce something with a little je ne sais quoi.

Mobile phones incorporating cameras were introduced in 2001. Seven years from that introduction, the sale of cameras peaked (stand alone cameras that were not integrated). I look at this picture, and I see how that can all happen so fast.