Carmel Magazine

CM Winter 2016 Issue

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T he sunset is stunning —that blazing orange ball taking its nightly interlude over the Pacific. I run to get my phone so I can take a picture, or two, or 10. Then I remember : I have vowed to use "eye photo" instead of iPhoto. It's a resolution: to take fewer photos and videos this year, and when I give in to temptation, to just snap one or two. Knowing that my locally based family and friends also have eyes in their heads, and most are likely seeing the same miracle of nature, I will also refrain from post- ing said shots on social media. As for those who don't get to see this amazing sunset, do I really need to rub it in their faces via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook? I watched the New Year's Eve ball drop on social media from a stranger's phone screen who was also recording thou- sands of other phone screens held high in the crisp New York night. It hit me: What a shame. All those people had made the trek to Times Square and instead of living the moment, they recorded it. I would have done the same. It moved me to make that resolution: Fewer images on my phone and iPad. Being a hypocrite about recorded images is easy. I'm guilty: it's a love/hate thing. Almost everyone enjoys seeing things through glass screens instead of just through their own corneas. But, sometimes, we "miss the message," accepting what others see, experience, and post as as a substitute for our own experiences; we roll with the humor of strangers instead of trusting our own sense of humor. We crop and click and add filters and share, then end up forgetting what the actual setting was like. We fill the memory of our devices with duplicitous shots of everything. A simple family photo now has several ver- sions, one extra snap taken every time someone's eyes were closed, or they think they look less than "good." Vivid fuchsia and white Bougainvillea is finally creeping through the palm fronds in my back yard and I am thrilled. But I remember my new sensibility and refrain from photograph- ing it, instead, storing the image in my mental files. It's a chal- lenge and I have quite a reformation to make. Our family's Fourth of July celebration was spent in Vancouver, Washington, where fireworks are legal and every home provided their own little show. Sure, I watched in wonder. But I also recorded most of it on my phone…the fireworks of strangers eating hundreds of megabytes. During the summer, we saw the sun set in the Bahamas, where I took almost 20 shots from different angles of that same orange orb over the Caribbean. In the fall, Michael McDonald (of Doobie Brothers and solo fame) played at Carmel's Sunset Center. The concert was amazing, with McDonald's unadulterated baritone rocking us all the way in the back rows of the venue. I took at least a dozen short videos and several dark, grainy photos. I posted one on my Instagram account. What did I do with the other 11? Nothing. They were eventually erased from the phone to increase its memory space, along with fireworks in Washington and sun- sets in Bahamas. Also gone; the nine exact-same-shots of my Pug, Coco, laying on the couch; five videos of our elderly Pug, Chica, walking in a field; countless selfies with my daughter Morgan and I holding both Pugs. Camera phones are only about 15 years old, and we surely take advantage of them. A couple years ago, National Geographic predicted that Americans would take well over 1 billion photos by 2015, the majority on phones and tablets. The theory is that, hey, we can always erase them. My theory in taking fewer photos is in keeping with de-cluttering my life. True, these pixels don't take up any real physical space. But what they lack in size, they steal in experience: They take us out of the moment, out of the feeling of what is happening.The second I see the sun setting over Carmel Bay on a fog-less evening, I bet I'll run outside to get a shot. My promise to myself is to not take my usual 20 shots, then check them all on the spot—the sun having disappeared over the horizon by the time I look up from the phone. Yes, that's happened more than once. I'll use eye photo next time. Dina Eastwood is a former news anchor at KSBW TV, past host of "Candid Camera" and has starred on a reality show on the E! Network. She is a writer, editor and yogini. She resides on the Monterey Peninsula with her daughter, Morgan. BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT D I N A E A S T W O O D T nightly interlude over the Pacific. I run to get my phone so I can take a picture, or two, or 10. Then I remember : I have vowed to use "eye photo" instead of iPhoto. It's a resolution: to take fewer Camera phones are only about 15 years old, and we surely take advantage of them. T he sunset is stunning —that ing it, instead, storing the image in my mental files. It's a chal- T Life Through Eye Photo 44 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 6

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