I make no bones about selfies

I do not like selfies. People smirking at a camera are just not interesting. Even if there's some major tourist attraction behind them like an Eifel tower or a castle -- THEY ARE STILL BORING!!!!

Maybe I rant against the same old, same old, same old, same old, same old because imagination was a highly-prized value in my family. Don't do what everyone else does just because they do it.

Equally bad and boring are a group of people just smiling at a camera. During a family event when people are preparing food, someone is raising a glass, a child falls asleep on grampy's lap, that makes interesting photos, which tell a story of the event.

How many times have people been doing interesting things and everyone stops to line up to smile at a camera totally losing the feeling. In ten years unless labelled who would know if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving, Easter or just a get together.

I'd much rather see a photo of Mom putting stuffing in the turkey, or Auntie laying the top crust of the apple pie.

I do not claim to be a good photographer. But as a writer I want a photo that tells a story.

This little girl could have stopped and smiled at the camera. BOOOORRRRINNNG. Instead she has a big smile, her hand is fiddling with her hair. This would make a great exercise in a writing class: write ten minutes about this scene.

Crop the photo and it becomes more interesting because the expressions are clearer, the writing of the box tells a story. The main subjects of the little girl, the pig the box with the clown becomes almost a circle for the eye to follow. And it would be better without the woman standing behind even if she has the good taste to have the same red shoes I do.

 What if you cropped even more?

This may be a matter of taste. The focus is on the expressions. I like this one less than the one above it.

At the same fest with the little girl we saw a sculptor, a delightful man who loved his work. He had many samples that were not for sale. He was teaching others to work with clay as he worked.

The eye in the photo is drawn to the people at the table and I lost focus of the photo I wanted to take of the sculptor.

With cropping we can see his concentration on his work, better detail on how he is holding his knife. If he were looking at the camera, to me the photo would be another boring, smirking person.

But I also liked focusing on the piece he was working on and his hand. Too bad about the elbow. I could do another crop, but I would lose the ball of clay.

This was the front of the piece, but I prefer the photo I took cropped. The woman in the background spoils the story of the photo. I only wish his hand with the knife had been on it and then it would have been better.

It was hard to catch a group of Catalan singers in costume as they marched by. I just snapped and got this.

Then I tried cropping.

A little better. Two others in Catalan costumes. Shows the women's costumes a bit.

And although it is a bit fuzzy, what I love is the man's smile looking ahead.

I guess that's why I fight Rick every step of the way when he wants to take a photo of me standing, staring at the camera, in front of some monument with a smirk on my face.

Nor will I take him the same way. A few of favorite photos of him are:

Rick doesn't usually lay down on the sidewalk, but near the Dali museum in Figueras, Spain he was trying to get a special perspective of a statue for me, bringing back great memories of a special day.

He was laughing as he was cooking here NOT STARING AT THE CAMERA. The meal was great.

When we were in downtown Geneva, we saw the grass couches. Now a selfie would be him standing by it grinning into the camera. Instead he laid down on the couch making it a story photo and showing what the couches were meant to do.

I have a dinky little camera in a pretty pink. I am not a photographer with any in-depth technical knowledge. I hope I know the difference between interest and boring.