Friday, January 17, 2014

DIGITAL PHOTOS: BLESSING OR CURSE?

The holidays have traditionally been a time to capture family images to share now and in years to come when they become cherished mementos.  But, will these keepsakes vanish in the digital age?

The immediacy and low cost of digital imagery has redefined how we capture and store family photos and home movies.  No longer are we encumbered by expensive rolls of film, and the time and money for processing.  A Super8 movie cartridge that captured three minutes of material has been replaced by smartphones and digital cameras that can record countless high-resolution images at virtually no cost. 

While we all point and shoot incessantly, our emphasis is on the convenience of capturing media and transmitting it, not the ease of viewing it in the distant future.  We are capturing virtually everything regardless of merit and with little, if any, forethought.  In the age of film rolls, every shot had to be carefully considered because there was a limit to how much film you could afford to shoot.  As a consequence, just about every image was meaningful and we are not overwhelmed by copious amounts of material.  The enormous stockpile of media we are accumulating in the digital age, coupled with the increasing pace of technological change and the lack of organization in archiving these images will pose serious challenges in the future.

Home movies taken during the childhood of someone born in the late-1980's might include VHS, SuperVHS, 8mm video, Hi8, MiniDV, DVCam, DVD's, and an huge myriad of digital file formats and codecs often unique to a certain manufacturer's software.  And the tapeless, digital media probably resides on an assortment of computers, disks, and drives.

Conversely, a child born in the early 1950's would likely have just 8mm and Super8 movies to worry about. If a movie projector was retained, nothing else would be required and no format issues would apply.

Imagine the impediments a middle-age adult will face 20 or more years from now when they want to revisit childhood images.  The volume of media captured while they were growing up will likely be staggering.  There simply won't be enough time to watch it all.  And being selective won't be an option to many in the absence of proper labeling.  Hundreds maybe thousands of digital files will be hidden in the dark recesses of various computers and other storage devices if they happened to survive.  And many older file formats may be unplayable.

The baby boomers today have tangible, manageable collections of snapshots and movies to revisit their childhood and share with their own children.  Sure, it often does not have the visual quality of today's imagery, but a lot has to be said for its ease of retrieval.  Of course, this is subject to proper preservation and cataloging as well.  But, safeguarding and organizing photo albums and a shoebox full of home movies is a lot easier than organizing and saving hundreds, maybe thousands, of media files residing on a multitude of storage devices.

Many camera enthusiasts talk about consolidating their material on a common drive as storage devices get smaller and cheaper while their capacity grows.  But, this is easier said then done.  It requires time and self-discipline to follow through and the process is unending as more and more media accumulates.

Another potential problem is that storage devices may fail to function if they are left idle for long periods of time.  This means powering up each drive periodically which can be a daunting task as more drives are acquired.  These are not issues we needed to worry about a generation ago.  A shoebox full of photographs would always deliver.

The digital age has a lot of merit, but individuals have to exercise some degree of self-discipline and organization in order to preserve the imagery that will enrich their lives, their children's lives and future generations to come.



© Copyright 2013, Jeff Gewert