First Whipper Snapper...

For me, and others, one of visual highlights of the inauguration was Malia Obama, 10, taking photos/videos of her dad while he gave his address. You can sense how well adjusted those kids are, and how permissive their parents are, encouraging curiosity and personal projects wherever and whenever. I mean it's probably a safe bet that the speech was being covered, but Malia thought, No, I want to preserve this moment for myself. Her private world seemlessly, confidently integrating with the world around her. Nice.

Then, horror of horrors, someone told me that Kodak gave her the camera for the event and encouraged her to shoot away. A sponsorship! Hearing this was the equivalent of having my heart torn out of my ribcage and thrown into traffic on the 405 freeway. I hope this isn't true. Must everyone be a shill? Can't anything just happen without a marketing strategy attached?

Generally, seeing pictures (in the media) of people taking pictures leaves me cold. It gives me the impression that we are we a nation of passive voyeur-gawkers just waiting for something, anything, to point our shiny digicams at. Self empowerment by capturing, thus owning, moments in time, all at the push of a button. It's stupid. I should mention, in direct contrast to what I've said, I do enjoy taking pictures of Sarah taking pictures. Or let's just say that I don't really have a choice and that I could fill a twenty volume set of phonebooks with samples of this occurrence. I've come to embrace this aspect of our relationship as a form of communication and even mind reading.