There may be one thing worse than having to produce the happy surprise response to a surprise birthday or Christmas present (acting lessons, anyone? – I mean it doesn’t matter really whether you love it or not, you have to do an instant and convincing surprised delight either way, often in public. ) The worse thing is the looking at the holiday photographs.
They might well be great. Entertaining. Funny. Unusual. Beautiful. But the trouble is you have to make some appreciative and interested and different noise as each one appears. And these days there may be a great many of them. I’d say it’s almost impossible but I think we all try.
I’m married to a photographer, so I’m also supposed to make intelligent appreciative remarks about his professional garden pictures.
That never works well, because I look at the subject (garden) and respond to that. I’m supposed to respond to the quality of the picture itself. So when I make yawny noises at the sight of a hybrid tea or yet another flowery meadow I get taken to task. Understandably I suppose.
Holiday picture solution just happened though! Charles took pictures and blogged his holiday! I wasn’t even present at the presentation. All that was required was an interested response by way of a comment at the end. Brilliant. Sorted.
Pics on these blogs are all my own, you know, and you don’t have to comment at all on them.
The worst thing about looking @ other people’s photos is having to listen to their explanations about where & what they are. I like to look through on my own & ask if I need, or want, to know something. Much quicker that way too – looking with the photo-taker, who comments on/explains every pic, takes forever! And that way you don’t have to ooh & ah over every photo – which as you say is difficult when there are zillions of them!
The digital downside..Yes – that’s ideal if you can wangle it.
I remember you made a comment about my picture of you in your wood, you did not like it, and I offered to remove it from my blog but it is still there because I like it…sorry (It is all a matter of taste again, but it is difficult to be honest about them, who likes upsetting people ?) I am unsure why we have wedding photos taken, I do not know many people who either enjoy having them taken, or who enjoy looking at them later , but we still seem to think we have to have them done….at least we can have a laugh at the way we used to dress.
Do we look at any of our photos much? I have loads, we always mean to, always something else to do…
It’s a real shame that your broadband link at home is so constrained as otherwise those of us who really appreciated the photos from France (and of the Wales Coast Path) might try to persuade Charles to post a selection of the pics that didn’t make it. Or at least add a few more of the final walk.
The secret, maybe, is to show some of the best holiday photos but stop at the point where the audience is actually crying out for more.
Crying, you say? Crying….
I just love the pictures on this blog. Every one of them. And whether you are in the room or not I quietly go “ooh” and “ahh”.
Seriously, I really agree this is a big issue. Well, two issues, cos I think the present thing is different, but connected. I bet a similar one plays out with parents and the latest offerings from their infant of their latest crayon squiggle or craft disaster.
But back to the pics. It’s the audience, isn’t it? Maybe I should just hand you my phone and let you take it back to bed for a couple of hours whilst you slowly swipe through the hundreds of pics that I didn’t publish from France, taking notes about all the ones you want to know more about or which you thought were particularly beautiful ?
Err… a couple of hours?????? Comments?????? Ummm….There seems to be even more problems here than I had imagined…