Sometimes I have memories taking pictures. Flash photos are generally more memorable. I do not often take pictures of people using flash. It seems inconsiderate. Maybe it’s really not. Maybe it’s more that I don’t want to call attention to the fact that I’m taking a picture. I don’t find that animals (at least non-humans) seem to really care.
I like the glowing eyes that appear through flash, but this wasn’t always true. I remember as a teenager taking photos and not liking how humans looked with glowing eyes. It seemed unflattering and wasn’t accurate. Now I like how sort of soulless humans look with flashed-out, glowing eyes, and now I think maybe the flash is accurate. Maybe some kind of creature out there sees only glowing eyes, so flash photography (that results in visions of glowing eyes) is more representative of its visual world.
I like taking pictures of animals with glowing eyes. I like it when a cat’s eyes seem to glow even without flash photography. I move a certain way, and my face and eyes move with me, and I see in the corner my eye a cat’s eyes, glowing in a certain kind of light that is moving in a certain kind of way. That moment feels long and unique.
I remember places I’ve lived or traveled using flash photography. I saw a tanuki somewhere in Japan. I saw a cat somewhere in Japan. I saw a cat in Australia. I don’t like to talk about traveling sometimes because it seems so elite. I don’t want anybody to feel jealous. If there wasn’t a pandemic happening right now, it would be nice if everyone could travel. It seems like a nice thing to share if someone wants it. It would be nice if it wasn’t so often destructive. It doesn’t have to be so destructive.
Lots of people have all the resources. Lots of those people like to limit other people’s resources. I guess travel isn’t in the hierarchy of needs. My camera is always at the ready, but I don’t always use flash. Only on special occasions. Traveling is like a set of glowing eyes.