Ah, I remember PacMan, those ball-munching beings which came at a premium.... a one rupee coin to be precise ! Don't be amazed, this was some good 20 odd years back. There was a magical, dark and noisy joint on Park Street called "Wonderland".. pretty much the biggest video game arcade in town in those times. This was the pre-console era mind you, and pretty much pre-PC too.
Any venture to that area of the town for Lunch or Dinner by the seniors used to mean a big deal to us, the kids. 5 one rupee coins would be the norm, but 10 would be a real bonus. While my parents ordered food, I would rush to my kingdom of 15 minutes. Oh I miss PacMan ! Now, I can download it anytime, and play as many times as I want, and that too without paying a penny, but I doubt whether it will give me the same amount of pleasure, and butterflies in my tummy, just like those old days.
But why am I suddenly talking about PacMan ? A-ha, there's a reason. Those who take pictures and those who take those pictures seriously would surely agree.
Tell me, what can a photographer (amateur - serious amateur - pro) do if he is given a camera, and 30 minutes to make sense out of it. Guess.... keep guessing.... because you're never going to get it right.
Well, if would have asked me that question 1 year back, I would have told you that the photographer would spend 15 minutes to capture a few frames, 5 minutes to sit down and choose the 95% of those that he would willingly throw away, and 10 minutes to do some post-processing before he would call those "photographs".
And I would be so wrong ! I know the answer now. This is what he would actually do.
He would whisk away the camera, probably dumping it at one of the service centres. He would log in to a photography forum or community, choose a soft target, gather some like-minded people, and post some very "generous" comments. In most cases, he would hardly spend 2 seconds to look at the photograph that he and his friends would be talking about. And, the best part is - all of these can be done within 30 minutes.
If you can do so much in 30 minutes, why would you get your a** baked in the sun and click the shutter ? Come on, God gave you Adrenaline, so use it !
But still the question... why PacMan ?
Because PacMan, if born in 2010, would be the world's greatest photographer, munching photographs of others and possibilities of their own at the speed of light ! So symbolic ! So go photographer... gulp them down before they can even look through their viewfinders !
Disclaimer : The above text is completely fictional, and any similarities may please be treated as co-incidental !
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