Philosophy for melworm.com - 12/14/2023

     Photography and cameras have changed dramatically since Aristotle captured an image from real life in 500 bc. An online site called PetaPixel indicates that there were three major eras of photography: the plate era, the film era, and the current digital era (corresponding roughly to things in the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s). I have no idea of what may be in store in the future.
     So, in today's world (2023), cameras for the majority of people are no longer even separate devices, They are included in devices known as 'phones' that obviously serve as much more than just phones. And individuals can easily take pictures of any and all subjects/objects. As a result there is a proliferation of pictures (and videos) that are easily shared.
     One could easily then ask why I would go to the trouble of posting photographs (and videos) on a web site. That is what I hope to address in what follows.
     First, I would like to point out that I have access to many photos (including old ones), slides and videos (some from movie film or videotape). In 1997 I began posting pictures online after a trip to Hawaii. About the same time I began posting pictures of my students at Kean University which I used to get to know my students better as well as for attendance. I posted both personal and school photos at the Kean website.
     Second, when I post the pictures/videos I select only 'good' ones. More recently I am including only people, people with scenery, and exceptional scenery. There are many other sources of scenery that generally can be found online. I then edit selections trying to remove red eye and any distractions, possibly rotate, adjust color and sharpness, etc.. I then make them a standard size, which substantially reduces their size. While storage space is not at a premium as it once was, I also edit videos which can be large. For example Casey's Bat Mitzvah videos take up close to 4 gb unedited, while all of the other posted pictures/videos posted as of this writing take up less than 1 gb.
     Third, the server at Kean was upgraded recently and everything I had posted there (roughly 1997 to 2008) had to be switched to my own server at melworm.com . Mixed in with doing this transfer, I began to post some scanned pictures from years prior to 1997. I have only done a little of this.  At the same time I have continued posting things from 2008 on. As of this date I have done years 2008-2012. While I have already done some things from after 2012, I still have to catch up to all of 2023 and then continue to be current.
     Fourth, although this is sort of an aside, I started taking better quality pictures (after the very popular $1 Kodak Brownie) when Elissa bought me an Aries 35mm camera as a present when we were engaged. I will be posting the 1st (black and white) photos I took using it. Thereafter I took many color pictures and slides with it. These and subsequent cameras included an 8mm small Minolta, several Sony and a Canon all took good quality photos. I also had a small Flip video camera that did a good job taking high speed action even in low light (hence good for recoding fencing).  All of these were outdated with the introduction of SmartPhones (iPhone, Samsung, etc.).
     Fifth - so my hope is to have edited photos/videos available that go back to the earliest time that I have material. This will be a record of families and friends easily accessible on one's phone. I hope that it will then be possible to create subsets that can have particular relevance to particular people. For example, all of someone's birthdays could be viewed. Or, all of the baseball trips that I have taken with Brett and Joey. At the bottom of the years that I have posted, there are some compilations like this. Like ancestors of mine and pictures/tributes to Louise and my Uncle Bernie.
     Sixth, the above material ties into two other things that I have been doing. The first is that of maintaining a family tree. It would be very nice to put pictures with the people in such a tree. This I believe to be above and beyond anything that I will ever do. The second is mainly the reflection of things in my life as being written in response to questions posed on Storyworth. Storyworth is a memoir-writing subscription that my daughter (Hayley) and her husband (Phil) got me as a gift. Pictures can easily be added to chapters of a book that can be eventually produced.
    Seventh, and last, the intent of having the photos/videos available to future generations is possible in two different ways.  First, all of the content can be available on a flash drive or dvd or other medium.  This would require a computer, or device that can execute from the medium, and instructions of how to access everything.  A 'readme' file identifying the file to be used to be able to see everything would be needed.  Second, all files could be loaded at a website like my melworm.com site. I believe I initially was paying $50/year for my site.  It is now up to about $90.  For this I receive e-mail addresses and 250 gb of storage (I did think that my storage was much less).  But even being able to use more space it would take longer to load larger pictures/videos.  In any case any other website could be used - perhaps even iCloud could be used (just checked and iCloud only can be shared with 5 family members).  It would be simple to upload all files to a website.  But certainly someone familiar with this would be more comfortable doing this.  For example Bruce Binder, and perhaps Josh Huntington could do this.