How mobile phones change photography

When I was two years old, my older sister and I were dressed in our best clothes and taken to a photographer’s studio to have our pictures taken.

My father was on leave from the Royal Navy and wanted a reminder of his children to carry with him when he went back to his duties in World War II.

In those days, a good photograph of those you loved was something to invest in and treasure.

So, with one image enlarged and framed and put on the sideboard in our living room, and other smaller photos safely stored in his wallet, my father returned to the war.

A picture of happiness: Ray and his wife Plum courting in 1964. But how many of the millions of digital snaps taken every day will ever be printed?

A picture of happiness: Ray and his wife Plum courting in 1964. But how many of the millions of digital snaps taken every day will ever be printed?

How different our lives are now, when the millions of us who own a smartphone are able to snap away as often as we want at those we love and anything else that momentarily warrants our attention.

Indeed, by next year it is estimated that a quarter of the world’s population will be able to do the same.

It is all part of the digital revolution in computer technology that has transformed our world over the past 30 years. And, in so many ways, digital is brilliant.

From banking, booking our holidays, paying on the bus, shopping at the supermarket, designing and building cars, ships, aeroplanes, homes, skyscrapers . . . almost everything you can think of, right down to sending emails (and writing this article), digital technology has enriched and eased our lives.

Surely only a modern-day Luddite would disagree. Well, maybe not. Because it seems to me that the march of progress doesn’t always keep everything in step.

While many things are gained by any great leap forward, other things are lost. When the CD was introduced in 1985, music fans were in raptures.

Albums would never again get scratched, and CDs were so much better to play in the car than those cassettes on which the tape was liable to stretch or snap. What’s more, CDs were easier to store than those large pancakes of vinyl we used to love.

But 30 years on, as Record Store Day showed at the weekend, those pancakes are making a comeback, with two million expected to be sold in Britain this year. Apparently, while CDs may be handier, the good old LP offers a warmer sound than the compressed noise we get on digital.

When Kindle and other electronic readers came along, prophets of doom were quick to announce the death of the book.

When Kindle and other electronic readers came along, prophets of doom were quick to announce the death of the book

I suspect, however, there’s something else, too. Getting an LP wasn’t just about the music it played.

It was about saving up and going to the record shop on the day it was released. Then there was the time spent admiring the artwork on the 12 in cover, before writing your name on the back in case you took it to a party and someone made off with it.

It was about ownership of something precious and big enough to hold in two hands, something to keep and value for life and remind you of what it was like to be 17. A 5 in CD could never compete.

And while online music sources such as Spotify may be handy for instant access to your favourite music, what they offer is no better than a personal jukebox.

The records being played aren’t, and never feel like, yours. The natural human factor can get lost on digital.

It’s the same with the books we love. When Kindle and other electronic readers came along, prophets of doom were quick to announce the death of the book.

But it hasn’t happened. Nor do I think it will. Digital books may have bitten an early slice out of traditional book publishing — about a third, seems to be the general feeling — but their growth is levelling off, as the publishing industry fights back with ever more dazzling covers.

That isn’t to criticise digital books. I publish several of my own on Kindle, mainly those that are out of print in paper. And when I need a book for some quick research for something I’m writing, I can have a digital version on my screen within five minutes.