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My neighbor's kid asked me why we take pictures of things we can't touch

He said, 'It's like collecting light from the past,' which totally changed how I see my own attempts at astrophotography. Anyone else have a simple comment that reframed the hobby for them?
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sarah818
sarah81828d ago
That's a pretty deep thought for a kid. Makes you wonder if we're all just trying to bottle up little bits of time before they fade away. My grandpa used to call his old photos "proof." Never said proof of what, exactly. But I guess it's proof that the light, and the moment, were really there. Changes why I bother with a camera on a cloudy day.
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mila_murphy21
Hayden_lane is right, even the blurry shots are proof the light made the trip.
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hayden_lane
Man, I always just thought of it as trying to get a good shot of something pretty. But that kid is right, it's more like catching something that's already long gone by the time you see it. Sarah818's grandpa calling photos "proof" hits the same way for me now. Makes my failed shots of blurry stars feel less like a waste of time, you know? Like even the attempt is its own kind of proof.
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