Google recently said it best: photos are more than only pixels. They're moments in time we'll never want to forget. Memories fade but the images you capture with friends and family unit last a lifetime.

When i of my best friends unexpectedly died terminal yr, his family turned to me for photos to use in the slideshow that would play during the visitation. Camera-equipped smartphones are the norm these days and as such, there was no shortage of pictures to choose from. Inevitably, this as well meant his loved ones were left with a drove of mostly low-quality cell phone photos to remember him past.

I learned at a very early historic period that photographs are frequently all you have to remember someone by. When I was young, my aunt was always snapping photos of my cousins and I when they'd come to visit or during special occasions. I never actually cared to accept my picture show taken but in retrospect, I'm thankful she was a shutterbug and believe it partially sparked my interest in photography.

Consumer digital cameras were just starting to come up around by the fourth dimension I hitting high school in the tardily '90s. Up to that point, standard film cameras and disposables were all we had to rely on. Camera phones didn't yet exist and most digital cameras offered a maximum resolution of merely 640 x 480 with images saved directly to a floppy disk on select models – hardly a suitable replacement for flick photography.

Camera technology advanced quickly over the coming years and by the early 2000s, you could get a signal-and-shoot digital photographic camera with image quality that'southward on par to what today'south mobile devices are capable of.

I was probably one of the merely kids in my school with a digital camera, not considering they were overly expensive, just because teenagers back then simply didn't care near taking pictures. This was largely because engineering science didn't notwithstanding play a key office in the lives of youth the fashion it does today. Facebook and Instagram simply didn't be at this indicate.

Having "unlimited picture" felt liberating and meant that I could snap away at whatsoever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I was hooked… I just didn't know it still.

LAN party, circa 2006

Despite my early on involvement in taking pictures, it wasn't until early 2006 that I picked up my first DSLR. The image quality of the Nikon D50 blew me away and although I didn't know a lick about photography, I was able to capture photos that even so expect simply fine a decade later. A couple of photography classes in college helped acuminate my skills simply to exist honest, much of what I learned came through trial and mistake and learning from articles on the Internet.

The showtime mobile phone to come equipped with a photographic camera module arrived way dorsum in 2000. It took another two years before camera phones constitute their way to the US. It'd be a few more years all the same before phones in general actually gained traction but once they did, consumers were hooked on "camera phones" every bit they were known at the time.

Past 2005, information technology was Nokia – not Canon or Nikon – that earned the title of world'south most sold digital camera brand. Consumers were content to leave their standalone digital cameras at dwelling house and rely solely on camera phones for their imaging needs. People were essentially trading image quality for convenience, a trend that continues to this very 24-hour interval.

I refused to subscribe to the notion that prison cell phone photos were acceptable and stuck with my entry-level DSLR. For a flow of virtually 3 years or so, I literally carried a camera with me everywhere I went, snapping thousands of photos in the process (I'm a few hundred pictures shy of 80,000 today). In a way, information technology became a role of who I was and yous could about always count on the fact that I'd accept my camera with me wherever life would take me.

Google recently said it best: photos are more than only pixels. They're moments in time we'll never want to forget.

Depending on your historic period or life experiences, that may non hateful much to you lot at this indicate. Having crossed into my 30s a few years back and having already lost both parents and a best friend, it certainly resonates with me. I've become much more than aware of life and how fragile it is. Nosotros just have a finite amount of time to create memories and once our fourth dimension is up, that'due south it.

Memories fade but the images you capture with friends and family last a lifetime.

I can't tell you lot how many times I've combed through my photograph collection over the years. From driving 1,602 miles cross-country to Las Vegas with my best friends to attend CES in 2007, impromptu weekend-consuming LAN parties and vacations with close friends to off-roading in perhaps the least capable vehicle possible (a Mini Cooper), annual Super Bowl parties and diverse sporting events, my photos accept documented it all.

It may take been inconvenient to lug around a camera all the time but in retrospect, I'm glad I had the insight and wherewithal to capture and preserve what will probable go down every bit some of the most important, exciting, fun and memorable times of my life.

I'chiliad not trying to audio like a parent attempting to instill good values in their children simply I want to convey the importance of what's at pale hither.

Maybe it'southward your babe's first steps, a college graduation, that one time-in-a-lifetime vacation with your friends, annual family unit gatherings or your girl'due south nuptials. Whatever information technology is, that moment only comes effectually in one case and I guarantee you lot'll exist kicking yourself if all you have to recall them past is a collection of blurry, grainy, done out, out-of-focus, Instagram filter-laden pictures from a smartphone (or worse, a tablet).

Sports Illustrated's recent cover photo of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah just before the horse crossed the end line at the Belmont Stakes is a perfect example of our generation.

Attendees, near of which I assume are quite wealthy, paid at minimum a few hundred bucks to witness what most correctly predicted would be the commencement Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Rightfully so, those in stands wanted to capture the history-making moment as information technology unfolded yet as seen in the embrace photo, anybody did so with their smartphone camera. Seriously, I can't spot a unmarried proper digital photographic camera in the photo.

I'grand not encouraging anybody go to out and drop thousands of dollars on a 50-megapixel, cutting-edge DSLR. A respectable signal-and-shoot can be had for a few hundred dollars these days or if you're alright with going the pre-endemic route, there are countless DSLRs and mirrorless cameras on eBay that still have enough of life left in them.

A decent camera that'due south 10+ years one-time is capable of producing excellent quality images, even when used in automatic fashion. Furthermore, I'yard not suggesting you acquit it around with you at all times. Even if you but utilize a standalone digital camera a few times each year, it'd be worth the investment in no time as memories are priceless.

Capturing important life events with a smartphone camera is a disservice to everyone involved. Technology has afforded us the power to preserve our lives and our memories similar never before. All I'm asking is that y'all don't squander away the opportunity.

And who knows, y'all may end upward finding a new hobby.