Photography, How Humans Have Been Saying “Remember This Moment?” since forever
Have you ever tried taking a selfie with your doggie? Is professional family photography important? Congratulations! You’re continuing a tradition that’s literally older than writing. Yep, humans have been trying to capture their favorite moments since way before we even invented the alphabet. We just used to be really, REALLY slow at it.
Cave People: The Original Instagram Influencers
Around 40,000 years ago, some cavewoman named Grog (probably) decided she wanted to remember that awesome mammoth hunt. But here’s the problem: cameras wouldn’t be invented for another 39,800 years. So what did she do?
She grabbed some dirt, berries, and maybe some charcoal from the fire, and painted the whole thing on her cave wall. It probably took her three days. Imagine spending your entire weekend just to post ONE picture. And she couldn’t even add filters!
The funniest part? Archaeologists have found cave paintings that include handprints. You know what that is? That’s a 40,000-year-old “I was here!” message. Grog literally invented the selfie. She just pressed his hand in paint and slapped it on the wall like “Yep, that’s me. Remember this hand. This hand is awesome!”
Ancient Egyptians: When Your School Photo Lasted 3,000 Years
Fast forward to ancient Egypt. The pharaohs wanted everyone to remember how cool they looked, so they hired artists to carve giant statues and paint portraits everywhere. On walls. On tombs. On the side of massive pyramids.
Here’s a wild fact: King Tutankhamun’s tomb had so many portraits and statues of him that when archaeologists found it in 1922, they knew almost exactly how he looked like. That’s like if your school photo was SO good that people 3,000 years from now would recognize you.
Though let’s be honest, most school photos make us look like we just woke up. The Egyptians didn’t have that problem because the artist could just… make them look better. Your nose too big? Not in the painting! Bad hair day? Fixed! They basically invented Photoshop, except it took six months and required a lady named Hatshepsut with a chisel.
Medieval Times: When Your Portrait Cost More Than Your House
In medieval times (that’s like 500 to 1,500 years ago), if you wanted a picture of yourself, you needed to be RICH. Like, own-three-castles rich. Because you had to hire an artist, and that artist would spend weeks or months painting your portrait.
There’s a hilarious story about King Henry VIII of England. He wanted to marry a princess from another country, but he’d never seen her before. So he sent a famous painter named Hans Holbein all the way to Germany to paint her portrait. Just so he could see what she looked like!
The portrait made her look pretty good, so Henry agreed to marry her. When she finally arrived in England, Henry took one look at her and was like “Uh… she doesn’t look like the painting.” Too bad, buddy, no returns! They got married anyway. (It didn’t last long.)
Then Cameras Arrived and Changed Everything
In the 18 centuries, about 200 years ago, someone finally invented the camera. FINALLY! Now you could capture a moment without waiting three months for an artist to finish!
Except… the first photographs took HOURS. You had to sit completely still for hours while the camera slowly captured your image. If you moved even a little bit, the photo would be blurry. There are old photos where people look super grumpy, and honestly? If you had to sit still for three hours without checking your phone, you’d look grumpy too.
One photographer told people to “think of pleasant thought” while posing. Can you imagine? “Okay kids, think about ice cream for the next two hours. Don’t move. Don’t blink. Just… ice cream.”
Also, because the exposure time was so long, there are almost NO photographs of people smiling from the early days. Everyone looks super serious. Like they’re thinking, “When will this be over so I can finally go pee?”
Fast Forward to Now: We’ve Gone Camera Crazy
Today, people take about 1.8 TRILLION photos every year!
Your great-great-great-grandparents probably had like five pictures of themselves in their entire life. You probably took five pictures of your breakfast this morning.
We’ve got cameras in our phones, cameras in our doorbells, cameras on drones flying around. We take pictures of everything: our food, our pets, our feet at the beach, random sunsets, that weird cloud that looked like Snoopy.
But here’s the thing: we’re doing exactly what Grog the cavewoman did 40,000 years ago. We’re saying “This moment is important to me. I want to remember this. I want to share this with people I care about.”
So, is professional family photography important?
Here’s the cool part: while we can all take pictures with our phones now (and we do SO many pictures), professional photographers are like the master artists of our time. They’re the modern version of those ancient Egyptian artists and Renaissance painters, except they work WAY faster and nobody has to sit still for three hours.
Think about it: your parents probably have hundreds of random photos on their phone. Maybe thousands! But how many times have you actually looked at photo number 647 from two years ago? Probably never, right?
But those special family photos – the ones where everyone’s dressed nice, the lighting looks magical, and yes, even your little brother managed to smile without making a weird face, those are the ones that get printed, framed, and hung on the wall. Those are the ones that make your grandparents get all teary-eyed and say “Look how much you’ve grown!”
Are you still wondering “Is professional family photography important?”
Professional photographers are important because they turn regular moments into memories that last forever.
hey know all the tricks: how to make the lighting perfect, how to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time (which is basically magic when you have three kids and a dog), and how to capture that split-second when everyone’s actually genuinely smiling.
The tools changed. The cameras got faster. But the truth stayed the same: capturing the people we love, looking their best, in moments we want to treasure – that’s something worth investing in.
