Photo Patterns

During my sabbatical I had the chance to look at my old photos and digitize them, so that everything can be stored in the cloud and be available wherever I am. A use case is that, if during a conversation the topic of who has been on TV emerges, I can proudly show my appearance on the children's musical show Zecchino d'Oro (I was part of the jury for one year, not a singer, as all of you might have guessed). 🎙

Apart from the convenience, it was an occasion to see what events were worth a photo, and they are beautifully summarized in the image of this post. These are the stickers available to be attached to the videocassettes from the camcorder that my family used when I was little. There are nine different mini-icons, and they are related to family, relationships, sports, and vacations.

It made me reflect not so much on what is contained in them, but more on what is not. For example, there is no business case icon. And I found a similar pattern in my old photos as well. Only a few are of the ordinary, and many of them are about vacations or special occasions. It makes sense that it's the unusual moments that end up being worth a shot, but if months pass by without any photos worth taking, then it's worth stopping to think about how one is spending time. In fact, today with smartphones the correlation between something exciting and a related photo is almost immediate.

At the same time, seeing how many photos I took of monuments during vacations, I just wish I had taken just one selfie with the person I was with back then, and left monument-only photos to Google Images. Memories worth remembering are about people, not places.

P.S. The tenth icon is left to be drawn. In the end, you decide what's worth a shot. 📸