This may sound cynical, but it points out the absolute dependency we maintain for portable sources of power. Where once we could make images with simple ingredients like iodine crystals, silver-coated plates, boiling mercury, and 30 pound cameras, we are now chained to a lithium cell, a charger, a wall socket, and Collie power station.
I am only a little encouraged - it is impossible to steal Collie power station, and difficult to steal the wall sockets...but every other blessed thing can vanish in an instant. The electrical myths that are recorded on the memory cards can likewise be edited out by accident as easily as by Aperture. Just record lots of irreplaceable images on a big card and wait for fate to come calling. Remember all those "recover your images" programs that exist? They wouldn't exist if they weren't needed.
There are only three ways to ensure the longevity of your artistry:
1. Back it up on a million discs, hard drives, and solid state drives and bury them in steel vaults all over the planet. Protect the vaults with passwords. Write the passwords down on a paper and stick it on your fridge with a magnet. Preferable a kitten-shaped magnet.
2. Print it on real paper with real ink. Epson paper, Epson ink. Let the ink dry and store the paper in a clean dry place.
3. Take a libellous or scandalous picture and let it out to You Tube, Flicker, or Facebook. Your career may die, you will die, the Rocky Mountains will eventually be as flat as the Nullarbor, but that troublesome picture will still be circulating as fresh and foul as when you posted it.
But that is a diversion. We were talking about electricity. In our little cameras we only need a very little bit of it for normal purposes but as the cameras get bigger and the functions get more complex, more electricity is needed.Eventually we reach the point where the functions overtake the capacity and the camera refuses to take anything ...but if it did it would be magnificent. At this point you need to turn off the SAT NAV espresso maker with the portable hay baler. Leave the face recognition on because as you get older you need all the help you can get.
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