My little sister and our Aunt Lizzie on her farm c1950. I used a Kodak Brownie camera…
Toronto. My friend George Dunbar sent me a note after he visited this year’s CNE. His observations fit in with the posts I have been making over the last while – often based on material George himself provided. He muses here about the impact of the ubiquitous smart phone camera on the career of the professional photographer. Have a read…
Photography — What’s happened?
A Few Musings By George Dunbar
The explosion that’s taken place in amateur photography in the last 5-10 years is absolutely astounding! When I visited the CNE recently, I was surrounded by thousands of other camera-toting enthusiasts. They were shooting everything and anything with their modern, thin, flat devices that were unheard of only a decade ago. The multi-use camera phones are everywhere. I was embarrassed to be seen with my bulky Nikon SLR.
Every event is now captured by a multitude of camera-phones both still and video. Tourists appear to photograph everything in sight; weddings are photographed by most of the guests. Have these devices become an addiction? Some have been seen to photograph the Mona Lisa in the Louvre without so much as a second glance to absorb the actual object before their eyes. Millions of the images are quickly uploaded to Web sites for all to share. When one witnesses the phenomenon of these activities, it’s not unusual to see “selfies” being produced by the dozens. The “selfie stick” has achieved a reputation of its own!
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