Yeah, I know this isn't exactly a musical or ITM topic, but it did come up at our session last night and it got me thinking....
Are more ITM musos picture-people (that is, do you like to take photos of the places you go) or memory-people (prefering to save the experience in your memory, and thinking that photos are inferior to memory)?
Personally, I'm a picture-person; I like to have my camera with me in case I see something interesting. I like looking over photos of past events and find it easier to reminisce that way.
I LOVE taking pictures of places, people, whatever. I have a handful of photos of our session in action. And when I went to Ireland I took somewhere around 900 (digital) photos (over 8 1/2 days). Yes, the memories are better, but I love reliving them through the photos.
I like both. It depends what the mood is. Sometimes its nice to go back over old pictures with the familty. Other times its nice to have a one on one talk by the fire and talk through the past, remembering how it was and usually you remember the best bits so its all positive.
I've been asked why I have so few photos from my visits to Ireland. Even though I wish I had photos of every one I met, played tunes, shared drink and conversation with, every beautiful place I saw or drove through, etc., I still feel that the act of taking photos interferes with my experience and the flow of events. There have been rare occasion that family and friends have documented vignettes here and there... and I love looking at them... but I'd still just rather stick to the experience itself.
I agree w/phantom- I love it when someone takes a photo of me playing my heart out at a hot session, or at a fiddle competition, but I don't want to interupt whatever I'm doing to snap a picture of it....I'd rather just remember it. The same when I was at fiddle camp and at some great sessions every night; I have one recording of the entire week's sessions, because I was too busy playing and talking to remember to record or even to bring my recorder along... now I wish I'd recorded more- but I'm happy just to have experienced all that.
I agree with PB, as I prefer to live my life in real time, not spend it observing things through a lense. I leave that to my wife. But I do appreciate the fact that she wields a camera, especially since she has made a part time career of recording our granddaughter's life in pictures, pictures I take great pleasure in seeing.
I have an album of session photos from 25 + years ago, and now and then I show them to whoever is concerned (people on the photos). The reaction can be anything from, my God did we really look like that, I wonder what happened to her/him, did I really wear that shirt, to, oh no, Ive still got that shirt. Always, though It gets a thumbs up
However I have many more mental images of people, places, situations etc.
Yeah both pretty much rocks...I like to remember things, but I like to be helped by pictures...and there's nothing like finding a ridculous picture of you and friends or family and reminiscing based on it...
If OTHER people are taking the photos, you can have both! I've just been told that I'm on the cover of a recording made in..............1977, sitting next to Seamus Ennis; with friends in the background. When I get hold of a copy, I'm sure it will bring back great memories.
I love recording events in pictures.
It makes for great story-telling, and includes details - often embarrasing! - you would never relate if left to tell the tale yourself.
I love taking photos. However, what I do find is that my memory often gets restricted to the photo version rather than the experienced version. It's as if the clarity of the photo drowns out the weaker little song sung by memory.
Years ago I visited my parents on their farm down near Goulburn in NSW. Late in the afternoon we had an enormous dump of snow, and it continued to snow off and on all night. You always get a bit of snow down there, but it's a bit like up here in the Blue Mountains...pretty scarce and doesn't stay long on the ground. So while there was still a bit of light I went out with my pentax and shot what I thought was a reel of film. I then went indoors. Then I thought, "I didn't actually experience much of the joy of snow...I just looked at it through the lens." So I went back out and played until it was too cold.
Here's the rub: the camera actually didn't have a film in it, so I only have my memory of that event.
So, Grasshopper, if like Oldstrings (above) you take a photo of the toilet, don't forget to have a crap while you're there.
I love having pictures of things, I have a good memory but a tendancy to be negative - pictures of smiley friends remind me of good times and fun! Psychologically I think you are more likely to remember bad things that good things. how many times are you reminded of a good memory by someone that you have forgotton - probably more times than you have to be reminded of something bad that happened! Bit of a round about way of saying you like photos!!
Surely tunes will pring back the same memories as a photo - ah yes, The Killamore - I remember Chris Droney playing that in a session in blah pub,blah village ,2000 and blah etc.
Like PhantomButton, I don't like stepping back from the experience long enough to take a picture, but I'm an incorrigable sketcher, and a 5*7 sketcbook is with me everywhere. I have years worth of musicians sketched at concerts and sessions (when I didn't know the tune!), and my travel sketchbook from my trip to Europe sits on the shelf next to the (somewhat scantier) photo album.
I take traditional black & white non-flash photos myself and always take the camera to gigs and sessions where possible. I've done loads of pictures of live music and portraits of musicians, and it's one of the best feelings ever when a print comes out really well.
However...and it's a big however, there have been countless times when I've been sitting in a session or a gig and experienced this strange internal conflict - the perfect photo opportunity, versus my own complete immersion in the music/atmosphere. Ok so it sounds a little tossy but I find it really interesting.
Sometimes it feels completely right to take photos and even heightens my sense of the music and the event. Sometimes I can't bring myself to, despite how much I desperately want to!!
Just an example...I remember a session in Sligo once, it was late and the pub was packed out, I was sitting down low on a stool when a man started singing behind me. I turned round to watch...I still regret not taking a photograph (although it's hard to take photos subtley with a clunky old camera when everyone's quiet) because it might (or might not) have come out as a really great image. However I can still see it in my head to this day, which I suppose is ideal in some ways, as it is always perfect.
I do like to have photos to remember where I played and with whom, and with my little digital camera can record tunes and songs as well. I stick a selection on the web for friends to download, for example here:
Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
Yeah, I know this isn't exactly a musical or ITM topic, but it did come up at our session last night and it got me thinking....
Are more ITM musos picture-people (that is, do you like to take photos of the places you go) or memory-people (prefering to save the experience in your memory, and thinking that photos are inferior to memory)?
Personally, I'm a picture-person; I like to have my camera with me in case I see something interesting. I like looking over photos of past events and find it easier to reminisce that way.
How about the rest of you?
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by KeepFiddlin'
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I LOVE taking pictures of places, people, whatever. I have a handful of photos of our session in action. And when I went to Ireland I took somewhere around 900 (digital) photos (over 8 1/2 days). Yes, the memories are better, but I love reliving them through the photos.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by Crysania
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I like both. It depends what the mood is. Sometimes its nice to go back over old pictures with the familty. Other times its nice to have a one on one talk by the fire and talk through the past, remembering how it was and usually you remember the best bits so its all positive.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by PaddyCmusic
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I've been asked why I have so few photos from my visits to Ireland. Even though I wish I had photos of every one I met, played tunes, shared drink and conversation with, every beautiful place I saw or drove through, etc., I still feel that the act of taking photos interferes with my experience and the flow of events. There have been rare occasion that family and friends have documented vignettes here and there... and I love looking at them... but I'd still just rather stick to the experience itself.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by Phantom Button
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I agree w/phantom- I love it when someone takes a photo of me playing my heart out at a hot session, or at a fiddle competition, but I don't want to interupt whatever I'm doing to snap a picture of it....I'd rather just remember it. The same when I was at fiddle camp and at some great sessions every night; I have one recording of the entire week's sessions, because I was too busy playing and talking to remember to record or even to bring my recorder along... now I wish I'd recorded more- but I'm happy just to have experienced all that.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by BE
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I agree with PB, as I prefer to live my life in real time, not spend it observing things through a lense. I leave that to my wife. But I do appreciate the fact that she wields a camera, especially since she has made a part time career of recording our granddaughter's life in pictures, pictures I take great pleasure in seeing.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I love taking picutures, but I rarely look at them. I prefer to remember things. I also have no problem when someone takes a picture of me.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by Unseen122
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I have an album of session photos from 25 + years ago, and now and then I show them to whoever is concerned (people on the photos). The reaction can be anything from, my God did we really look like that, I wonder what happened to her/him, did I really wear that shirt, to, oh no, Ive still got that shirt. Always, though It gets a thumbs up
However I have many more mental images of people, places, situations etc.
I like both.
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by curlew
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
Yeah both pretty much rocks...I like to remember things, but I like to be helped by pictures...and there's nothing like finding a ridculous picture of you and friends or family and reminiscing based on it...
But human memory is, indeed, an amazing thing...
# Posted on October 11th 2006 by possumawesome
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
oh terribly I even have a pocket tripod. Today I even took photos of the toilet - to show off the paint job.
# Posted on October 12th 2006 by Joze
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
If OTHER people are taking the photos, you can have both! I've just been told that I'm on the cover of a recording made in..............1977, sitting next to Seamus Ennis; with friends in the background. When I get hold of a copy, I'm sure it will bring back great memories.
# Posted on October 12th 2006 by oldstrings
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I love recording events in pictures.
It makes for great story-telling, and includes details - often embarrasing! - you would never relate if left to tell the tale yourself.
# Posted on October 12th 2006 by RockyRoader
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I love taking photos. However, what I do find is that my memory often gets restricted to the photo version rather than the experienced version. It's as if the clarity of the photo drowns out the weaker little song sung by memory.
Years ago I visited my parents on their farm down near Goulburn in NSW. Late in the afternoon we had an enormous dump of snow, and it continued to snow off and on all night. You always get a bit of snow down there, but it's a bit like up here in the Blue Mountains...pretty scarce and doesn't stay long on the ground. So while there was still a bit of light I went out with my pentax and shot what I thought was a reel of film. I then went indoors. Then I thought, "I didn't actually experience much of the joy of snow...I just looked at it through the lens." So I went back out and played until it was too cold.
Here's the rub: the camera actually didn't have a film in it, so I only have my memory of that event.
So, Grasshopper, if like Oldstrings (above) you take a photo of the toilet, don't forget to have a crap while you're there.
# Posted on October 12th 2006 by Ger the Rigger
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I love having pictures of things, I have a good memory but a tendancy to be negative - pictures of smiley friends remind me of good times and fun! Psychologically I think you are more likely to remember bad things that good things. how many times are you reminded of a good memory by someone that you have forgotton - probably more times than you have to be reminded of something bad that happened! Bit of a round about way of saying you like photos!!
# Posted on October 12th 2006 by Jessicamaryhall
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
Surely tunes will pring back the same memories as a photo - ah yes, The Killamore - I remember Chris Droney playing that in a session in blah pub,blah village ,2000 and blah etc.
# Posted on October 13th 2006 by geoffwright
How about neither?
Like PhantomButton, I don't like stepping back from the experience long enough to take a picture, but I'm an incorrigable sketcher, and a 5*7 sketcbook is with me everywhere. I have years worth of musicians sketched at concerts and sessions (when I didn't know the tune!), and my travel sketchbook from my trip to Europe sits on the shelf next to the (somewhat scantier) photo album.
Always hold out for a third option!
# Posted on October 13th 2006 by skellington
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I take traditional black & white non-flash photos myself and always take the camera to gigs and sessions where possible. I've done loads of pictures of live music and portraits of musicians, and it's one of the best feelings ever when a print comes out really well.
However...and it's a big however, there have been countless times when I've been sitting in a session or a gig and experienced this strange internal conflict - the perfect photo opportunity, versus my own complete immersion in the music/atmosphere. Ok so it sounds a little tossy but I find it really interesting.
Sometimes it feels completely right to take photos and even heightens my sense of the music and the event. Sometimes I can't bring myself to, despite how much I desperately want to!!
Just an example...I remember a session in Sligo once, it was late and the pub was packed out, I was sitting down low on a stool when a man started singing behind me. I turned round to watch...I still regret not taking a photograph (although it's hard to take photos subtley with a clunky old camera when everyone's quiet) because it might (or might not) have come out as a really great image. However I can still see it in my head to this day, which I suppose is ideal in some ways, as it is always perfect.
End of nostalgic ramble!!
Lizzy xx
# Posted on October 15th 2006 by Lizzy
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
p.s. I didn't use "tossy" but the forum seems to prefer it to my original word choice!!!
# Posted on October 15th 2006 by Lizzy
Re: Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs?
I do like to have photos to remember where I played and with whom, and with my little digital camera can record tunes and songs as well. I stick a selection on the web for friends to download, for example here:
www.roguery.com/outings/music2006/
# Posted on October 19th 2006 by hohenloh