One too many photos?

I’ve been told I have an addiction to taking pictures of my little ones. I imagine most parents can relate to that.

It all started when I was heading to the hospital to have my first-borns. My sister told me to smile for the camera (read iPhone) before experiencing childbirth. Luckily, I’ve forgotten the difficult part of that day. I think God gives us this wonderful gift of forgetfulness in order to be able to make the decision to go through it all over again, should we choose to. And then they were born. Two beautiful little angels. Double the fun, double the pictures. I took photos and videos of them almost every day during their first couple of months of life. Throughout the next 12 months, I took pictures using my semi-professional camera, my iPhone, my newly-purchased Polaroid camera (because, why not) and even paid a couple of visits to a professional photo studio just after they were born and to mark their six-month-birthday. When they turned one, I hired a photographer for their party to guarantee my guests would be well looked after and I wouldn’t pause every five minutes and ask for this angle or that lighting (the pictures turned out to be beautiful by the way).

With the birth of my third child, I find myself obsessing over taking pictures and videos all over again. Her first smile, her first fist-pump, her first pose with her brothers ... et al. Much to my husband’s dislike, who finds taking more than one picture per occasion excessive, I am snapping away at every opportunity. This past Eid, I could hardly contain my excitement. But it also got me thinking: When does taking photos of your children become one too many? And it’s not just pictures of our children that we are dedicated or addicted to. It could be our pets, our foods, our wardrobes if we’re into fashion ...

In a fast-paced, visually-driven, celebrity-obsessed culture that feeds all the social media platforms every minute of every hour, there’s a huge willingness to try to memorialise every bit of one’s daily life. Instagramable moments are consciously or subconsciously influencing our habits — even if we don’t post our pictures or share them online. I for one don’t share my children’s pictures on social media.

Yes, our children’s lives are being documented to an over-the-top degree and there is a risk of ‘spoiling’ wonderful memories of special events because of our obsession with taking photos. And yes there’s a huge disparity between how our generation is doing things versus our parents’ — namely due to the advancement of technology and accessibility of smartphones. Their times were far simpler, we keep getting reminded.

One also has to wonder, are we making great use of our smartphone photos? Personally, I am not so sure. If I am being honest, printing pictures and making albums have been on my to-do list for the last five years. I succeeded twice and I can tell you both albums I’ve made felt rushed. When you’re having to choose from thousands of pictures (literally), you’re bound to get distracted or suffer from picture-viewing-fatigue by the second hour.

But at the same time, going over old pictures, be it on my phone or computer, brings me immense joy. As cliche as it sounds, pictures do conjure old feelings and emotions and keep our memories from fading. And by default, we tend to take pictures during happy times, right?

Moreover, I am not sure many people would agree that the best way to safe-keep pictures is to get them printed. Prints lose quality over time, but digital pictures can be saved in multiple ways. I am sure you’ve all watched videos of parents who have taken pictures of their children every single day of their lives (some in the same pose) for 10 or 20 years. Now that’s excessive. But most of us can appreciate the happiness it brought to those parents; it is definitely one way to show your love and devotion to your children.

I doubt I’ll ever get to that level of commitment. Besides, our smartphones have made video-making and editing so easy nowadays. All you have to do is glide your finger and say yes and a short video is instantly made.

Experts advise if you really want to reminisce on any significant event in your life using images, you should take a couple of photos and then put the camera/phone away in order to enjoy the moment. Now that’s a challenge I am willing to take — provided I slightly increase that number to 10.

Manal Alafrangi is former opinion editor.