29 Oct 2014

Back in the days, a visit to a photo studio was always cherished by many. 

It was not an easy thing to capture one’s happy moments with a camera without visiting a studio. As life changes people can afford personal cameras and Batswana like the rest of the world now own electronic gadgets, which enables one to capture own moments.

With the evolution of smartphones and social media like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, individuals are now photographers in their own right.

Lounges, bedrooms even bathrooms are photo studios as people take pictures of themselves with smartphones and immediately share with their friends on social media. This is called a ‘selfie’ in the social networks lingo.

With this development of smartphones, one wonders whether photo studios still have a role in the fast life of “selfies”. According to an online source, titled ‘How smartphones are changing photography’ by David Einstein, technology sometimes kills itself off.

It further states that a generation ago, if one wanted to listen to high-quality music, they bought a 100-watt stereo receiver, a new-fangled CD player and an expensive pair of speakers. Today, all they need are ear-buds and an iPhone.

“We are now watching the same evolution take place in photography, where smartphones are displacing traditional cameras... Digital-imaging technology has become so good, and so pervasive, that it’s hard to tell whether a photo on a website was taken with a professional camera or an iPhone,” said the website.

The site goes on to mention that today’s smartphones are smaller and lighter than stand-alone cameras, and since one always has their phone with them, they also always have their camera. Furthermore, the site stated that another important advantage for phones lies in the dozens of innovative camera applications that turn phones into virtual darkrooms. 

One can crop and edit a photo, give it a cool style and post it directly to Facebook or other site in a matter of minutes.  The ascent of camera phones also speaks to a fundamental change in the way people think of photography. 

Increasingly, people consider the photos they take as true snapshots, moments caught in time that are fun to see but not worth printing on paper. In an interview with BOPA, a 24 year-old Ms Maleka Kwerepe said she never visits photo studios but uses her smartphone to take pictures and share with her friends on Facebook. 

Ms Kwerepe believes her smartphone has everything and sees no point to go to a photo studio, while for another young lady, Ms Gaasite Moetse, going to the studio for photographs will be a waste of her time since she has a camera and a smartphone.

She said that she loves photographs but uses her smartphone to capture moments and share on her WhatsApp or Google plus profiles. 

Ms Moetse feels the photo studios are a bit expensive in Maun, therefore she only develops a few of her photographs for certain events like graduation to have them in hard copy.

A photo studio owner, Mr Lazarus Phillimon of Mr Photos in Maun attests that the photography business is not the same as when he started around 2008.

Mr Phillimon initially used to use a bicycle then a vehicle to reach out to customers around Maun.  However, the petrol prizes made Mr Phillimon to resort to a make shift studio in midst of Maun old mall shopping centre in 2013. Mr Phillimon feels that the studio business is not doing satisfactory since he does not receive many customers.

For Mr Thabo Kgomotso of Mashie Links investment, customers mainly use his studio services to develop soft pictures from their smartphones. Mr Kgomotso said the proceeds from picture developments are not bad since a customer can develop many pictures at a go, at a cost of P10 each, while a photograph costs P12.

Another owner, Mr Kelebonye Zwinila of Red Animal Holdings said business is sometimes low at their photo studio since only a few people come to take themselves photographs, but only come to develop pictures. ENDS