When a visit gets dull or even when it's moving along fine, more often than not the big photo album comes out to be shown to the lucky foreign guest. (Side note: this probably doesn't happen to male foreigners too much because many times women who usually veil will take photos without their veils. This is why they can't display these photos for everyone to see. Perusing the family photo albums is just one more benefit of being a girl in the Middle East.)
From weddings to babies, photos are important reminders of the good times in life. Or are they? In fact, it is extremely rare to find a photo of someone who seems to be enjoying himself or herself. Scowling faces or deep ponderous eyes gaze into the camera. Of course, since most of these photos are wedding photos, it really isn't surprising that no one looks too happy. Most wedding photos are elegantly posed on couches taken from old French brothels. Baroque furniture and still life paintings crowd the background, giving the impression that the photo was taken in your grandmother's parlor. But with the advancement of modern technology and photoshop, things have gotten much more exciting!
These days, the classical couch photos still exist, but they are supplemented by others that allow you and the subject to be transported to a different place, often a place not of this world! Indeed, I myself have been allowed to feast my eyes upon photos of brides and grooms floating in space with firecrackers exploding behind them. (People here are amazingly fond of firecrackers, dynamite, and other explosives which may be the subject of another blog someday.) Others prefer an autumn forest of gold and red leaves covering the background of the photo. Still others enjoy posing on a romantic beach at sunset.
The traditional parlor room pose where lovers and babies repose in silent grandeur and the modern jet-setter pose where love takes people beyond borders without a passport are both moving, yet my personal favorite photoshop technique involves multiple images of the same subject in various poses in but one photo. So often, when many great shots are taken, frugal parents or lovers still do not want to buy that many photos. Instead of wasting these images, they are all moved into one frame. For example, the adorable baby is crawling in the foreground of a deserted island. On her back sits...herself in the same orange-striped outfit. To the side, near the blue-green sea, the same lovely baby giggles in the imaginary sunset, while two familiar baby eyes watch the scene from behind clouds. Proud parents aren't the only ones using this money-saving and artistic technique. Lovers also use it to show their devotion. The bride and groom sit stiffly side by side while the same bride looks down upon herself as part of a happy couple from the inside of a floating heart in the upper-right-hand corner. Sometimes her face is not in a heart, but in a rose or superimposed on the breast of the groom. Another friend of our has a slightly more narcissistic way of making use of this technique. In his self-portrait, his own face looks out at the world from his stomach in a special two-for-one viewing of his manly beauty.
We in the West do not take advantage of the vast scope of technology that sits at our very finger-tips. I rarely see photos in my homeland that rival the depth of those I see so often here. But I plan to change that when I take over photography for Marian and Josh's wedding. I will show the world what it is missing.
From weddings to babies, photos are important reminders of the good times in life. Or are they? In fact, it is extremely rare to find a photo of someone who seems to be enjoying himself or herself. Scowling faces or deep ponderous eyes gaze into the camera. Of course, since most of these photos are wedding photos, it really isn't surprising that no one looks too happy. Most wedding photos are elegantly posed on couches taken from old French brothels. Baroque furniture and still life paintings crowd the background, giving the impression that the photo was taken in your grandmother's parlor. But with the advancement of modern technology and photoshop, things have gotten much more exciting!
These days, the classical couch photos still exist, but they are supplemented by others that allow you and the subject to be transported to a different place, often a place not of this world! Indeed, I myself have been allowed to feast my eyes upon photos of brides and grooms floating in space with firecrackers exploding behind them. (People here are amazingly fond of firecrackers, dynamite, and other explosives which may be the subject of another blog someday.) Others prefer an autumn forest of gold and red leaves covering the background of the photo. Still others enjoy posing on a romantic beach at sunset.
The traditional parlor room pose where lovers and babies repose in silent grandeur and the modern jet-setter pose where love takes people beyond borders without a passport are both moving, yet my personal favorite photoshop technique involves multiple images of the same subject in various poses in but one photo. So often, when many great shots are taken, frugal parents or lovers still do not want to buy that many photos. Instead of wasting these images, they are all moved into one frame. For example, the adorable baby is crawling in the foreground of a deserted island. On her back sits...herself in the same orange-striped outfit. To the side, near the blue-green sea, the same lovely baby giggles in the imaginary sunset, while two familiar baby eyes watch the scene from behind clouds. Proud parents aren't the only ones using this money-saving and artistic technique. Lovers also use it to show their devotion. The bride and groom sit stiffly side by side while the same bride looks down upon herself as part of a happy couple from the inside of a floating heart in the upper-right-hand corner. Sometimes her face is not in a heart, but in a rose or superimposed on the breast of the groom. Another friend of our has a slightly more narcissistic way of making use of this technique. In his self-portrait, his own face looks out at the world from his stomach in a special two-for-one viewing of his manly beauty.
We in the West do not take advantage of the vast scope of technology that sits at our very finger-tips. I rarely see photos in my homeland that rival the depth of those I see so often here. But I plan to change that when I take over photography for Marian and Josh's wedding. I will show the world what it is missing.
You'll have to teach me these brilliant photography techniques. I have never had a photo of myself looking at myself while wearing a picture of myself with myself floating in the sky above. I feel deprived.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention that kids are often posed with fake (or maybe real) AK 47s and swords.
ReplyDeleteI had to read this one out loud to Stacey because it made me laugh hugely (and she got rather a huge kick out of it herself). I'm way excited about you taking over my wedding photography. What a load off my mind!
ReplyDeleteWow, just think...we can pose Marian and Josh with swords in a desert with our faces in clouds looking down upon them! We can photoshop shrabs into her bouquet!!!
ReplyDelete