please empty your brain below
***PICTURES OF KITTENS***
Most of my photos are 1s and 2s; 3s have been on the increase since becoming a parent (mostly at the request of my own parents); 4s and 5s are the outliers.
Possibly 0.05% of 3s.
I don't do new social media.
Excellent categorisation btw. I've often pondered this one.
Nowadays nearly everyone has a camera on them at all times and pictures are instantly viewable, saved or discarded meaning that less thought is probably given to taking a picture than was done when you had a camera with a film and maybe only 8 pictures to be taken on that film.
I tend now to take pictures with myself or people I know in them, maybe as you get older and past friends die off it is nice to look back at their picture(s).
The other reason I do not take many pictures of objects or buildings now is that I only have to look on the internet and find that someone else has already taken a similar shot.
Cannot do that for self or friend photographs.
I've looked back at recent photos and they're mostly of boy number 1 (he has a learning difficult and smiles a lot and is generally very happy). Boy number 2 is neurotypical and hates having his photo taken. There are a couple of photos of him asleep.
There a a few photos of cats. I'm not really keen on cats, not even sure why we have them, but they look amusing hanging around in the kitchen giving it their hungry look, strechted out super long in front of the fire or even asleep on the book shelves.
There are a few 1s (Oxford Street when was closed to traffic for roadworks and South Stoke near Arundel for example).
I really don't get the whole selfie thing. We went to the races at Epsom for a family birthday a few years back and bumped into a very well known jockey in the lifts. Selfies of younger family members with said person were on facebook within seconds. Grrrr. Cringe.
Harry Potter thing at King's Cross, have you seen the queue? Was in Greenwich recently and couldn't believe the queue of people for meridian selfies. There's a photo somewhere of my sister and I astride said line taken about 40 years ago. There was no queue.
I find this whole incessant facebook thing quite repellent. Oh look at ME, aren't I having a great time?
I try to update pictures of family but rely more on them being sent to me-sons and grandchildren are always so busy.
#John said about photos of friends being kept up to date as we grow older and they die,a good idea but you never completly forget what they looked like and all the good times you had together,do you?
It is a useful categorisation scheme, but I'm not entirely convinced that 5s (me, me, me!!) are more social than say 3s or 4s.
I am generally 1. I avoid 2, for fear of a massive overreaction from parents who see a man pointing a large lens in the general direction of their children(entirely innocent people have been arrested for this).
Almost never 3 or 4, because all my friends and family live hundreds of miles away on another landmass, and when I am with them I let other people who are much more keen on 3/4 take the group shots.
Sometimes 5, purely for social media purposes :D
Couple of other things, I'm not sure if today's post was triggered by that recent BBC 4 (?) programme about photography, but the conclusion is that because most of us carry smartphones, we can now take endless photos and videos, we don't have to remember to bring the camera, or because we only have 36 exposure we don't want to waste any on trivial stuff, or we have to use a flash.
As to pictures including people, I like the work that someone such as Vivian Maier did, just being out on the street.
I often repair things which may mean dismantling or removing parts, restoring/repairing and then reassembling. Taking photos of the equipment before disassembly makes the rebuild much easier.
Also if I need a part for some old equipment in someone else’s premises, I just visit take some pictures of the unit, and any identification names on it. Saves writing down.
So maybe a Reference Photo category.
My Father took thousands of 1s of geography and geology on a tiny Minox camera. My Mother had to get her own camera in order to have any shots of people, known or unknown.
My husband seems incapable of taking photos without me (or his new granddaughter) in them. I don't seem to enhance many shots, but she is quite happy with this.
My step son takes photos for a living or of his wife and daughter.
Despite these preferences, there are lots of cats.
Also, just a thought, but technology (or more specifically software) might tend to drive different types of photos being taken. I imagine people might take lots of 5's on an app like Snapchat, but are more likely to take a mix of 1/2/3 on other applications.
I'm off now to take a 5; my mum claims to need proof that I'm alive...
How about 1A photos for art's sake / photographic competition / abstract.
1B Places / scenery / buildings, either record shots or 'been there' keepsakes.
1C Hobby shots, e.g. buses, trains, boats, planes.
Etc.
Maybe campaigning shots, which would give a category for pics of Bus Stop M.
I never take 4s or 5s, but then I am antisocial and don't use social media, whereas my daughters use social media extensively and so mostly take 4s or 5s.
IMO the arrival of digital photography changed the whole world of family/personal photo taking.
In 1984 I went two months to Australia, I took over that period four rolls of film at 36 per roll, which was seen as quite normal for the time.
Since the digital revolution it’s quite normal to take hundreds of photos of every simple event.
Looking through my photos, 95% are of buildings/landscapes, the only exception to this was the period when my children were young.
So that makes me a ONE.
I expect the majority of regular DG readers will be mainly 1 or 2 category, as we are a discerning but self-selecting bunch.
(*) partial, in so far as my head will feature in a corner or side of the shot.
It occurred to me if that was carried on, eventually there'd be a category for every individual photo ever taken...
Joho
As you get older 5s no longer appeal, and as everyone (almost) has a camera phone, I do more 3s than 4s.
Soon after I first met my (now) wife, I borrowed a posh camera, and took lots of photos of her (a whole film - 36 not 24!). The main reason for this (I now realise) was to convince her that I considered her beautiful, something I could not so readily put into words. Photgraphically speaking they were nothing special, I have never yet got the hang of pressing the button at the right moment.
to remember to take any photographs of myself or the people I'm with, but I always regret not doing it afterwards. I'm probably not the only one.
I went to a party recently where most people were fifteen years younger than me. Taking 2s was a bonding tool; a way of saying, we have come to a pause in the conversation, but I like you nonetheless. Quite helpful in the moment, although distressing to see my face all over Facebook the next day.
I think Michael hit the nail on the head; pre digital you had to be selective in what you took but now people tend to just fire off excessive amounts, mostly just for the sake of it.
As long as I was holding the camera, I was in charge of things and was able to generally avoid being the subject, until of course the selfie craze came along. I try my very best not to be persuaded, but sometimes very reluctantly I do a 4 (with a very petulant expression), but never a 5.
I am mostly a 1 photographer but as others have said sometimes it is good to have unknown people in a shot as it adds context so there are some 2s in my photo collection.
I also note that I am not alone in having inadvertently snapped DG when taking a shot of something else. I think I am also in a DG photo of the same event but neither of our photos have been published. Another subtlety is that if I snap a "thing" I try to include background so really I'm snapping a thing surrounded by other things.
I really don't get the selfie thing at all. I dislike being photographed so I'm not going to inflict that torture on myself nor the resultant images on the wider world. Thankfully there are very few photos of me (accidentally taken by others) on the web.
You mean you haven't developed the "GTF out of my photo you ugly human" death stare?
And cats. Why is there not a CATegory for cats? I have lots of photos for cats. there is even a site where you can review cats in photos <https://twitter.com/thecatreviewer?lang=en> I think you need to get with the program DG.
For example, I take a lot of very boring 1s, which are to record stats at the gym by taking a snap of the screen. That's probably a good 40% of the photos on my phone.
Then there's a lot of 3s, as I take photos to share on the social media account I run for the sports club I belong to. They tend to be more interesting shots of members doing various activities. Being the one taking the photos, I'm rarely in them, so it's definitely a 3 rather than a 4.
Finally, there are a smattering of 4s and 5s, which tend to be when I'm visiting somewhere. I work on the principle that a) I'm not a very good photographer, and b) for any reasonably touristy place someone will have taken a much better shot of it than me. Thus it's much better to preserve the memories of the visit by photographing myself and whoever I'm there with, than ending up with umpteen identikit shots of an interesting building that I could just see on Flickr any day.
Didn't find a single 2...
As you go from young and single to relationships and family your focus tends to shift more from 4/5 to 3/4.
Saying that, as a genealogist I realise the importance of making sure you're not just behind the camera, but also in some of the pictures too. Eventually it's all relatives will have left of you.
I have no pictures at all of my paternal Gt Grandparents who both died around 1910 whilst in their 30s. They had taken a photo of their 2 young sons just before they died, but hadn't had any done of themselves.
I also worry that in this digital age, few pictures of the millions we each snap will survive to be passed on for future generations!
A kind of Dewey Decimal system for photos, taken to the limit? Maybe at Mountain View.
No stamps travelling in EU, or entering Hong Kong or New Zealand amogst others. Selfies rarely date marked like the early digital cameras pictures (weren't they annoying), so our travels have become a mixed up pack of cards.
But then I noticed every time one of my photos was especially pleasing to me, it was more of a 2 photo. That photo of a street or building where I waited ages for nobody to be in frame was actually a bit dull, and that photo of the same street with some people in it was a lot more satisfying and 'meaningful' as a photograph, somehow.
So I started trying to take 2 photos, but I'm not very good it.
Very often when people see my camera pointing in their general direction they look uncomfortable.
Just the other day I even had some bloke cover his face for 20 yards until he was passed me. Other times people will come up to me and demand why I'm photographing them etc.
I don't blame them at all, I don't really like being in unsolicited photos either.
But I do sometimes find it a bit odd how the possibility of your face appearing as a small, unfocused smudge in the corner of someone's photo of a victorian church or similar, is socially considered scary and threatening, while simultaneously, selfie culture is a social norm.
One the one hand taking 40 photos of your gurning mug or breakfast toast is absolutely normal, but head along to an interesting piece of architecture with a DSLR and you better hope there aren't security guards around because you're basically a terrorist, no cameras allowed, move on sir. Weird.
I was at Brockley Market, a couple of years ago, taking pics of the old Citroen catering vans. Without even really looking, I tried getting one with somebody in it, purely to add a 'human element.'
He looked at me. It was only then I realised I'd actually photographed somebody :)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/32293736@N04/17289210221/
Rarely 4 unless it's recording a family occasion - graduation, wedding, etc.
Often 3 - this is the place we visited
Sometimes 1 or 2 - this is something unusual or interesting I saw.
(Or a record shot eg of the condition a hire car was in when I collected it)
But a 1 or 2 of a famous landmark seems pointless - there a dozens of pictures on the Internet.
I was at a funeral today where someone had set up a slide show of the deceased's life - all 3s, 4s and 5s of course. Much appreciated.
@Lorenzo
People don't have cats. Cats have staff. Only the cats know why you have them.
You had to be a serious photographer if you concentrated on 1s. For starters, you needed a decent camera, a selection of lenses, and plenty of spending money. Few of us could afford to "waste" photographs; if we could, it was a hobby, like stamp collecting or astronomy.
4s needed a helpful passer-by, and you'd be depending on (and worrying about) their ability to press the right button and not waste a shot. As for 5s - that would be weird.
Not a day goes by when I don't take photographs for interest or for work. 95% are 1s or accidental 2s. I'll still take 3s on high days and holidays. I've tried 5s, but it feels perverse.
Tricky.
Great post.
53 comments so far. What's the record?
dg writes: This isn't even in the Top Fifty.
If DG's statement that DG never takes 5s is true, the one person we can all be sure that picture No 5 is NOT of is DG!
@John Simmons - I have often wondered this myself... ;-)
I don't deliberately just snap people but I do like to get some as background to some shots. The trick is to simply get your camera set up and then put it down or hold it away from your face. Then all of a sudden take the photo when people haven't time to react to a photo being taken. I then put the camera away. Maybe not the easiest technique but one which usually works. Of course if I was using a smartphone no one would react. It's only using a DSLR that causes a "reaction" as somehow you're deemed to be professional. I've been asked if I was waiting to snap a celebrity more than times than I've been challenged over what I was snapping.
The solution is gaining confidence by practice.
I only use a compact which (besides being a fairly 'unthreatening' sort of camera in itself) has some small advantage inasmuch as your face - your expression - isn't hidden behind it when you're using it. If you show a friendly face, you're far less likely to be perceived as 'sinister' or trying to do anything covert.
Sometimes a 2, because that can be hard to avoid.
My wife is a 3, where "You" means "Me".
She has to try hard to turn me to a 3, where "You" means her.
Things can be strained at times.
PS
I do not have the co-ordination for a 5.
I am predominately 1 and 2.
The occasional 3 for family and the rare 5 - but ONLY for a personal project I’m doing and not to put on social media! I don’t do 4. I don't like selfies, there is something that just feels odd about them...
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