Billions and Billions of Pixels

Not pixies, Pixels.

With the latest snow fall here in the Cincinnati area I find myself taking more and more pictures. First with my Samsung Galaxy S III phone and then with my Samsung CL80 camera (14.2 megapixel), which is a few years old. Click, click, click, another Samsung moment. Click, click, and then up to Facebook.

Many of these pictures not be seen by anyone. Isn’t that just throwing pixels away? Can we use up pixels?

I grew up with camera’s. My Dad, a very good amateur, taught me how to both take pictures and develop them. Ah yes, film. I developed my first pictures around the age of 5 in our Kitchen. Memories of working in the Red Light area – different connotation here.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye and I have that camera in the basement. It will soon be part of history, along with all the other camera’s that I have been carrying along and looking to get rid of.

My first 35mm Minolta SR1 SLR was fantastic. I did the same thing after I got married by developing film in the kitchen and turning the living room into the printing darkroom. My wife had to hide out in the bedroom. All those glorious prints. Now the days of film are disappearing along with the devices that used the film.

Today everyone has access to taking great pictures that do not cost to process (develop and print). We can just take pictures. Let the eyes do the walking/talking. Good pictures are in the eye and heart not necessarily in the equipment. The equipment becomes important when we want to refine our output. Serious photo art can require some great expense. 

Today anyone can have digital camera’s but better we have GREAT digital phones. My Samsung Galaxy S III has the following specs.

Camera: The Galaxy S III is as powerful as it is stylish. For starters, the camera has 8.0 megapixels and absolutely zero shutter lag, so you can catch memories the moment you press the shutter. Want more? Take up to 20 continuous shots in seconds with Burst Shot. The front-facing camera even has a full 1.9 megapixels, so you can get yourself into the HD action. http://www.samsung.com/us/galaxy-s-3-smartphone/?cid=ppc-

I long for the days when I was shooting pictures of our son playing baseball, football, or just playing. Click, click, click, another memory. More pixels with instant gratification.

My first Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997) stored it’s pictures on a 3.5 inch floppy and if you printed them over 2” by 3.5” they did not look good. Actually some did not look good even at that size. On a computer screen they looked great. WOW – ahead of my time. I cannot tell you how many times I heard; “Digital camera’s will never replace film.” Yes, Kodak thought that also.

Today we have a deluge of camera phones. Just look at the statistics below and then discover that we have not reached all of the market. These phones make the instamatics of the late 60’s and 70’s and even later look really bad. And you had to have the ‘film’ processed.

Some current statistics regarding the proliferation of camera phones.

You will find more statistics at Statista

We shoot and shoot and shoot but what happens to all of the pictures? We don’t post everything to Facebook or even YouTube, only the ones that we like. Most of these phones will take a picture and let you post straight to Facebook or wherever. I do that. Where are all those pixels going that do not get posted?

We are all photo journalists right? The eyes and ears of the world. Go out and take some more pictures. I understand the pixels are free.