As our hard drives fill up with thousands then tens and hundreds of thousands of digital snapshots, we’re all going to face the same basic challenges as the Bettmann Archive. Of course, you won’t haul 19 semitrailers full of your decaying family photos into cold storage, as the Bettmann did in 2001. But you can expect to go clicking through folder after folder of pixelated images, trying to find the one where Aunt Rose put on a silly inflatable life preserver in the summer of 1999.
A digital camera is an enticement to take more snaps than you can keep track of. Why not shoot a few more pictures of Aunt Rose to see if you can get one that’s slightly more flattering to her – how to put it? – irregular profile. You don’t even need to carry a camera; you can squeeze off a stream of shots with your cell phone and send them to your inbox. With the price of digital storage plummeting even as our time seems to become ever more valuable, it’s cheaper to store the lot of them than to weed out the clunkers. —David Weinberger —Point. Shoot. Kiss It Good-Bye. (Wired)
I had fun recording this in the studio -- with live foley artists! https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xc-_o_qr2vE&si=ozF_Zxd4wAWR2W6w
Here's my letter responding to an recent article about the future of the student newspaper…
https://youtu.be/CXm3WxU--fM?si=E1BHac8JgF83G2FL Full version
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That's a very good point... I hadn't thought about that.
Very interesting. The article did not mention that some digital cameras have a microphone and can be programmed to record 5-10 seconds of sound after a picture is taken allowing for a brief description of the picture. The audio file is associated with the photo file (probably given the same name with different extensions) and could be converted to text and searched later on. My camera has this feature but I have not tried it out yet.
Josh, I recall reading somewhere that digital history is changed now because people can and do delete the shots that aren't "money shots". Historians can often learn a lot about the "other shots on the roll" taken at the same time as the prize-winning shots that capture our attention. If I'm on site somewhere, and I check the LCD screen and see that I have a pretty good picture, that might affect my choices... if I'm tired, I might go home happy. Of course, if I'm not satisfied with the image, I'll keep shooting.
Will, the technology doesn't exist now, but it probably will eventually. At least, that kind of voice-recognition will probably be around long before the image-recognition software that would really solve our problem.
However, recording to an audio file isn't going to help you when searching for a photo, as I have yet to see a camera that takes the sound of your voice and converts it into text (which is what the computer needs to help you in your search for "that one photo").
Actually, as the portfolio person in me screams, the point is to cull the winners from the losers - even if you burn the whole lot to CD for mass storage, you can create a "good" album to keep in the forefront. Even put it to print and keep it as a single file - that way if the physical copy is damaged, the virtual copy still exists.
Joshua Sasmor