Who else’s phone is filled with photos of their pets? Anytime I want to show someone a picture on my phone its “Ok, let me scroll past these 35 pictures of my dog with his head cocked just so.”
One look at our social media feeds and you know Americans have a love affair with their pets. We may be living in the golden age of fawning over cats and doggos, out in force constantly capturing every cute pose of our furry friends with our phones.
Along with pictures of mouth-watering food, pictures of pets might be the most frequently posted images on Instagram.
And despite what Trump and Vance imply, food and pets are not one and the same thing. (I’ve had to reassure Moe that a recipe for “Leg of Lab” is not a real thing. )
National Dog Day
My rescue dog Moe at our beach 2024
When National Dog Day arrived a few weeks ago, I posted a picture or two (or more) of my dog Moe like every other canine lover. Choosing from the thousands I have on my iPhone was the only tough choice.
Thanks to Steve Jobs, Moe may be the most photographed dog I’ve had.
Standing under a chuppah set up for a late afternoon wedding at the Gold Coast estate that is Moe’s dog park, I confirmed my vows to love and cherish this most extraordinary dog. And made good on my vowed more than make up for the dearth of early photos.
Yet sight unseen, I said “I do” when a dog rescue group asked if I wanted to bring this sweet Louisiana lab into my life last December. All I had to go on at the time were a couple of blurry, out-of-focus photos emailed to me from his busy foster mom.
It was hard to relate to these off-kilter, unflattering shots of the dog who would become Moe. Though I gently nudged her on how to pose him, use good lighting, and shoot at a flattering angle, my instruction was ignored.
But I believed this kind woman when she enthused how very special he was.
“He looks into your soul,” she waxed poetically in a soft southern drawl.
That sealed the deal. Who could refuse this Lord Byron of dogs?
I could see beyond the weirdly squinty pink eyes and odd expressions in the photos. I vowed once he was mine to properly document this dog. I just knew in the right hands I would do justice to what I sensed was a handsome labrador retriever. And taking pictures through love eyes makes all the difference
In the nearly 8 months I’ve had Moe, I now have more photos of him than I do of my first dog Prince who was an integral part of my childhood for over 12 years.
1962 Our First Summer with Prince. Only a handful of photos were taken.
There are no pictures of a wide-eyed six-year-old me tentatively petting Prince on our first meeting. No one even thought to bring a camera when we drove to Queens on a fall night in 1961 to pick up this little dachshund to bring home. Nor are there any images from those first weeks with a brand new family member.
In contrast, there are close to 100 iPhone photos of Moe within the first hour of meeting him.
My dog Prince 1969
Though the memories of Prince are indelibly imprinted in my mind, poor Prince is memorialized with just a mere handful of faded black and white and Kodacolor snapshots saved over the years.
Those Kodak moments to remember are mostly in my mind.
Of course, we were wholly dependent on a Brownie camera and then a few years later an Instamatic. Though both cameras were easy point-and-shoot, the trick was having the actual camera available to capture the exact moment when your dog looked particularly cute!
By the time you fished the camera out of the cluttered drawer or crowded closet in another room, the oh-so-precious goofy smiles, cocked ears, cute paws, and heartwarming, adorable looks were lost forever.
Then there was that matter of the number of pictures still available on your roll of film that, unlike your limitless iPhone, was a finite number.
Just how cute was that puppy dog look? Was it worthy of one of only 12 shots or 24 shots?
But at one time, that Brownie was as revolutionary as the iPhone was to our generation
It got the world hooked on photography.
When Kodak popularized the snapshot at the turn of the last century as the modern way of capturing Americans at play it was as revolutionary as iPhone was to our generation.
Long before Steve Jobs made everyone a photographer in 2007, George Eastman’s groundbreaking Kodak Brownie Camera introduced in 1900 was the birth of personal photography.
The cost? One dollar.
This simple machine distilled the technical camera into basic elements making it cheap and easy to use.” You push the button we do the rest,” they promised. The easy-to-use cameras and reliable film made every man their own recorder.
Capt.
Its massive campaign marketing push to amateurs especially young ones Kodak sold over 1500000 Brownie dollar Cameras in the first year of production. 1910 ad
For a buck -with film costing 15 cents for 6 shots -everyone could now archive their life. It put photography into the hands of amateurs and allowed the middle class to take their own snapshots as well.
Suddenly this simple camera and film would give “you and million others- not camera wizards, just average everyday folks- the power to make wonderful snapshots of family friends and home.”
Snapshots were the great equalizer, the perfect tool for a democratic society, capturing the quintessential American good life.
Knowledge of technology was unimportant for a Kodak picture. The film was made for all who wanted to get a good picture of their good times…without any bother.