The impact of sharing good pictures

The urge to share pictures has never been greater than it is now. We have the social media over-flowing with a pictorial history of our times… and, allow me to add, even the past. A photograph captures a fleeting moment and an emotion… something that even our memory cannot do as effectively. Thus the past lives in our present and our present is captured for the future. This is history being recorded without the bias that mere words generally do.

“The Earth is Art, The Photographer is only a Witness ”
Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Earth from Above

Let’s look at articles and blog posts… or even Facebook updates. The 80-20 principle works best for whatever we write because willingness to read gets a boost by 80% if there are coloured visuals embedded in an article. This was realised by even the more sedate newspapers and they too decided to let news go along with as many pictures as possible. I can tell you that there is a more than 90% probability of an article being read if there are visuals connected to them. So all sorts of content creators make sure that it is never just words filling up the screen or the page, whatever the case may be. It is believed that 73% of content creators plan to prioritize creating more engaging content in 2016. I read in an online article recently that ‘articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images’. There is more engagement for Facebook updates that tag pictures and visuals… and Instagram, of course, is all about winning with pictures more followers for your organic presence on the web.

With so much value attributed to good pictures, can photographic skills be far behind? Well, when I talk of pictures, I do not mean the sloppy ones that one sees so often on the online platforms… and this obviously means that we need to move around with a device that has the capability to add value to our photo-instincts. No dark and smudgy ones, no blurred and badly composed ones, and definitely none without a connecting relevance. So yes, captions and text do matter… but so does the photograph.

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”? Susan Sontag

There is more to the photo-mania that is evident all around. I know I am on Instagram and have uploaded and shared almost two thousand pictures there… and besides being a great photo-diary for me, they have won me a lot of online goodwill and online friends and followers. These followers tend to reach out even for my blog posts that are also populated with pictures as well as other forms of visuals.

What else?

There is one vital factor that I have so far felt that I am unable to adopt readily. I want to share my pictures immediately and this is what I am not able to do every time… yes, there are those pictures that I click on my smartphone and after a bit of harmless editing, upload and share. I don’t just take a photograph, I make it… and so I need to share it for my subliminal gratification. But most of my good pictures stay in my DSLR and sharing them means I first need to download them on my laptop and then to my smartphone… that is, if I intend to share them on Instagram. What I share on Instagram can also be shared on Facebook, twitter, and a lot of other platforms… so for me, this is really important. This gives me a base to talk about a post that I may be intending to write… and thus for my blog too the long process hurts in a way.

The solution

“A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second. ”
? Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Wifi is vital. But so are devices that connect through wifi or NFC and help me get my share of online applause. The DSLR that I am currently using is Nikon D5100 and it doesn’t help me speed up my urge to share. So I obviously need a good camera that isn’t expensive and has all the ability to make the transfer of pictures seamless and fast.

I was with Mr. Andrew Koh, Vice President of Consumer Imaging and Information Centre, Canon India and he said in a meet where a lot of photo-enthusiasts were present: “Photography as a hobby and sporting a DSLR camera is quite the rage in India presently. So is social media, and everybody wants to share their images online with their friends immediately. With this a precursor, we are thrilled to launch the EOS 1300D – a DSLR camera with inbuilt Wi-Fi & NFC. The EOS 1300D creates great looking images and allows instantaneously sharing them as well – thus meeting the requirements of first time users, social media junkies and hobbyists alike.”

Aha! I said to myself… the Canon EOS 1300D is what I need. Being an entry-level camera, it is priced at INR 29,995/- inclusive of the EF-S 18-55 IS II kit lens, while the double zoom variant (including EF-S 18-55 IS II & EF-S 55-250 IS II lenses) is priced at INR 38,995/-… which makes it deliciously affordable. This camera has a 18.0 megapixel CMOS sensor and ISO speed expandable up to 12,800, is capable of shooting high quality images and Full HD movies… and this is what I like best: It has a built-in WiFi and NFC support that is intelligent solution to my social sharing needs. We were informed that this camera has a remote shooting feature that also enables wider photographic possibilities such as capturing group images via a tripod or shooting in tight spaces. When I asked about its performance in low light conditions, I was told that higher resolution images with lesser noise, even under low-light conditions were a distinct possibility.

Yes, I have handled this camera during the meet and the enhanced 920,000-dot LCD monitor made it easy for me to check on the focus during Live View shooting.

No, I have not bought the camera yet nor have I tried to test all the qualities that the Canon representatives mentioned. I hope they send me a review device soon… and then I will write another post with pictures shot on it… and shared instantly on my Instagram even before the post is ready to be uploaded. Just remember that the impact of sharing good pictures is what can help you become someone in the vast vistas of the social media.

Canon EOS 1300D

Details and specifications of the camera:

Dimensions: Approx. 129.0 x 101.3 x 77.6mm
Weight: Approx. 440g (body only)
Image sensor: 18.0-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
Imaging processor: DIGIC 4+
ISO speed: 100-6,400 (expandable to 12,800)
Continuous shooting speed: 3 fps
Maximum video quality: Full HD 1080p (30fps)
AF: 9 AF points
Wi-Fi: Yes
NFC: Yes
LCD: 3-inch (920,000 dots)