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We Need to Take More Candid Pictures

We are missing out on the photographs that capture memories...

By Anna ReaganPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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We need to take more candid pictures. We need to take pictures of the moments and people around us that matter and capture them in the truest form that we can. We also need to allow candid photos to be taken of us without worrying about our flaws.

Something we see constantly are instructions on how to pose and capture our best angles. We all want to look good...but do we always need to be posing? There is a time and place for posed pictures, and there is a time and place for candid photos.

Most often, people look the most beautiful when they are unaware of the camera and the insecurities they might have with their flaws. The best photos show true emotion and a connection to the present moment. Candid photos capture the human element in its truest form. The word candid originates from the 17th century and is linked to purity and honesty. In a candid photo, the honesty of that moment is reflected, living on in a photograph that captures the emotion or beauty of that exact second in time. When we see a candid photo of someone, we see them in a way that is often the closest to the real thing. When we think of friends or family, we remember them for things like their natural smile, their laugh, their passions, and the many actions of their daily life. This is what we should capture in photos to remember the people and moments captured for what they truly are. Candid photos allow an everyday human moment to become a piece of art that reflects humanity in both a large sense and on a personal level of sentimentality.

Society today is full of facades. Political correctness, niceties, and small talk have become the norm, dating sites are used instead of meeting people in real life, and social media lets us show people a version of ourselves that is rarely a reality. We should stop the cycle of insecurity that dominates our culture and start appreciating real things. We should not be afraid of the reality that a candid picture conveys to the world.

Putting this idea into practice, we need to take a few steps. One of the first things is to be more confident and secure in the way we look. We should respect ourselves enough to want to look and feel our best without nitpicking the little things about us that make us beautiful and unique. Second, we need to try to approach photos from a more objective perspective. Often we look at older pictures of ourselves, both candid and posed, and wonder why we were so hard on how we looked at the time. We see the picture more objectively, especially when it is a photo that includes a memory. Whether it be moments with friends and family or moments that marked special occasions in our lives, looking back we will care more about the emotions that a photo brings out in us than worrying about the flaws in how we look. When we are in a moment that will create memories, we should try to look at the situation in the way we will see it in the future. We should let go of our insecurities and both take candid photos of others, as well as allow photos of ourselves to be taken.

SO..take more candid pictures! You will appreciate them one day more than you could ever know. You can never get memories back, but photos are the closest things we have to be able to relive the memories that matter most to us.

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About the Creator

Anna Reagan

INFJ, Aries, student of international business, ethics, philosophy, economics and law.

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