Gone were the days when we used to have huge albums of photos; those thick laminated covers holding pages with plastic pockets in them where smiling faces and funny antics stare back at us from their wedged-in positions underneath the transparent surface as we flip through the pages.

We would laugh, giggle, blush, cringe and maybe even shed a tear or two as we look at these moments and allow ourselves to be momentarily transported back to that time, when it was all happening.

The happiness, the excitement, the innocence, the ignorance, the oblivion and even that tear-jerking moment all seemed to come back in a rush to tug at our heartstrings.

It all just seemed like yesterday when it happened.

The best and even the worst of us were all there, in those photographs.

Captured in stills and frozen in time.

It is as though everything is just as it is, and it never budged.

THAT, is the beauty of the photographs.

Digital photos do the same thing, capturing moments, but there is just something about those old photographs that makes the difference.
It is the essence of the reality of being able to hold that picture in your hand and feel that moment.
That is why they introduced the digital print, I know.

It is just like a printed sheet from the Internet compared to a book.

Oh well.

Photographs just have that way to tell us stories, stories of our own past.
They are great reminders of how far we have come, who we used to be and who we really are.

We live in our own memories that we continuously create every single day, and when we look back, these are the reminiscences of the past.

Photographs just bring the past to life and as though it is just right here with us, in the present.
That is the purpose anyway.

We want to capture these moments because it is a moment.
It happens only once.
It may never be the same again.

We could go to the same place again, but that feeling we felt when we were there the first time are just not the same as the second time.
It may be the company we were with, or that excitement and joy of visiting a place for the first time.
That same fervent feelings we had in our hearts could, and will change every time.
Every moment will never be the same.

We are all aware of that.
We know that we could never relive that moment and that is the reason we often say that we should live in the moment and just cherish that moment.

Photographs do just that.
Then technology evolved and even motion can be captured in the art of videography.

There are just so many ways one could now capture their moments and memories.

There is no end to it.

Photographs will never go out of style.

The moments are captured forever, in stills, frozen as though we are still there.

It is where hearts were never broken and the love remains strong.
They are meant to be kept with us, in our pockets, or in the wooden frames on the mantelpiece and our desk or just brought with us wherever we go.

This is how we preserve the people who have left us, physically or apart by distance and death, in these stills.
They will always remain there with us.

Digital or stills, photographs just bring our memories alive.

There they will remain forever.



Polaroid shots from my trip in Melbourne, thanks to the best girl and sister in my life :-*



*P.S:
I can be a rather traditionalist, and I do like the old photographs though I am thankful for the evolution of technology where I save tons on developing photographs (these cost a bomb) and the trouble of safekeeping the photo albums, and I have my photos on my computer or smartphone and they are with me All the time.
Still, photographs are really nice to have, and to hold there in the hand, with the yellowed edges and light overcast on the color tone - signs of age.
Oh well,  what can I say, I still prefer books to e-books.
Do not judge.

Oh, I am in love with Ed Sheeran's song, Photograph~