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Waiting to Develop: Taking the Time to Process in a Picture-Perfect World · STOPTIME: Live in the Moment.

• 0:23
  Lisa Hopkins: Hey there.
• 0:23
  Lisa Hopkins: So I'm a pretty good amateur photographer.
• 0:28
  Lisa Hopkins: When something catches my eye, or the light is just right, or maybe there's a juxtaposition of things that speaks to me, I take a moment to capture it in a photograph.
• 0:39
  Lisa Hopkins: Of course, like anything in art, in everything in life, it's really just all about perspective, isn't it?
• 0:49
  Lisa Hopkins: The photo is a reflection of how I see things.
• 0:53
  Lisa Hopkins: My husband, for instance, might have taken a picture of the same image, but it would look completely different.
• 1:01
  Lisa Hopkins: Sometimes, because he knows I like to take photos, he nudges me to take a pic.
• 1:06
  Lisa Hopkins: Ooh, look at that when he notices something.
• 1:09
  Lisa Hopkins: But if it hasn't drawn my eye in a particular way, then I decline.
• 1:14
  Lisa Hopkins: I just don't feel called to capture it.
• 1:17
  Lisa Hopkins: My mother-in-law is a huge fan.
• 1:22
  Lisa Hopkins: She's always remarking about what a wonderful photographer I am.
• 1:26
  Lisa Hopkins: Well, that's her perspective, I suppose.
• 1:29
  Lisa Hopkins: All I know is that I only take photos when, as I described before, the moment feels right.
• 1:39
  Lisa Hopkins: But what about you?
• 1:40
  Lisa Hopkins: Why do you take photos?
• 1:43
  Lisa Hopkins: I mean, we all do it to some extent, don't we?
• 1:45
  Lisa Hopkins: I mean, we all do it to some extent, don't we?
• 1:46
  Lisa Hopkins: Pretty much every one of us has a camera in our pocket at all times.
• 1:50
  Lisa Hopkins: But again, I'm asking you, why do you take photos?
• 1:58
  Lisa Hopkins: Hmm, If you're not one to regularly snap a pic, let me ask you this how often do you find yourself scrolling through other people's photos?
• 2:15
  Lisa Hopkins: Do you remember the photo booth when we were teenagers?
• 2:18
  Lisa Hopkins: It was so much fun to find one in the mall and squeeze in there with your favorite friend or person of the moment.
• 2:25
  Lisa Hopkins: Those pictures were always raw and usually silly.
• 2:29
  Lisa Hopkins: We had to cram together to get into the shot that was the fun part and then try to hold the pose without falling until the screen counted down and snapped the shot.
• 2:41
  Lisa Hopkins: These were always so fun because what it captured was typically laughter, hysterics, crazy faces living in the moment, the opposite of curated, more like spontaneous or natural or well real.
• 2:59
  Lisa Hopkins: I also remember a time when taking a photograph wasn't instant like it is today.
• 3:07
  Lisa Hopkins: Not only was it not immediate, we had to finish the whole roll of film first and then head over to the drugstore to have it developed.
• 3:17
  Lisa Hopkins: The week or so it took to process felt like an eternity to wait, and when they were finally ready and we were going to pick them up, it was the highlight of my week.
• 3:30
  Lisa Hopkins: And it wasn't cheap either.
• 3:33
  Lisa Hopkins: Many of my hard-earned babysitting dollars were spent paying for them.
• 3:37
  Lisa Hopkins: If I was lucky, there might be four or maybe five good pics in the batch of 24 or 36 exposures.
• 3:47
  Lisa Hopkins: The others blurry, over or underexposed, and a picture of my thumb over the lens or the infamous red devil eyes from the flash.
• 3:59
  Lisa Hopkins: These days, we curate our photos to show only our best side, best angle, best life, taking them over and over again until we look the way we want to be seen.
• 4:12
  Lisa Hopkins: We have become tethered to some kind of elusive perfection, never being satisfied with simply capturing a moment for a moment's sake.
• 4:22
  Lisa Hopkins: and look.
• 4:45
  Lisa Hopkins: In many ways, we are very fortunate that technology has given us access to beautiful images from around the world and from nature that we might not otherwise see, but we also have unlimited access to horrible things, not to mention the curated impressions of everyone else's so-called perfect lives.
• 5:10
  Lisa Hopkins: Think and think again, my friends, about how you capture moments, about how you engage with other people's photographs and with how you curate your own.
• 5:22
  Lisa Hopkins: Is it really so important what other people think.
• 5:26
  Lisa Hopkins: I'll still stop to capture an image that strikes me as meaningful or profound and share it with anyone who might be drawn to look at it through their own lens.
• 5:37
  Lisa Hopkins: But oh, how I miss that wonderful, messy, spontaneous, imperfect moment that we captured in photo booths and drugstore cameras when we took the time, when we took the time to process and develop our memories.
• 5:55
  Lisa Hopkins: I'm Lisa Hopkins.
• 5:57
  Lisa Hopkins: Thanks so much for listening.
• 5:59
  Lisa Hopkins: Stay safe and healthy, everyone, and remember to live in the moment.