The misunderstood selfie-taker

Many years ago, two chefs from two different restaurants decided that they would ban all cameras and photo-taking. One chef said that food was to be eaten, not photographed. He particularly did not like to see his customers snapping selfies with their food. It didn't take more than a month or two before both restaurants had to close down. One of them tried to salvage his business by declaring that he had changed his mind; he now encouraged photograph-taking. Take as many photos as you want, he pleaded. But it was too late. When a person wages war against a selfie taker, there is no turning back. The die is cast and every selfie lover will do his bit. In most cities in Asia that would mean just about every single customer of yours. 

Restaurants that ban selfie-taking may survive in Europe but there's no way such a restaurant can make ends meet in Asia. When I think about it, if I have a choice to eat something without once taking a pic or to pose for pics with the food without eating it, I would rather pose for pictures with the food than eat it. 

Posing with food

It's very hard to explain why Asians are so obsessed with selfie-taking. I was once in a nondescript Underground station in London and a friend I was with asked me why a group of Korean tourists were taking selfies in the station itself. It was quite an ugly station actually but they were all busy taking selfies with their phones/cameras. Before I could think of an answer, a train approached and out came my phone for a quick selfie. I just had to take a selfie with an approaching train and I do this even in my own country. 

The selfies taken in this blog are nude because this is my naturist photo diary. But I have a lot more clothed selfies than nude ones. I was asked why I took selfies when I cycled beside the Elbe river last summer into the Czech Republic. I take selfies when I'm cycling to the grocery shop in my own hometown and I don't take selfies when I'm cycling beside the Elbe??? I don't even understand the question.

Selfie taken beside the Elbe

Now, for an explanation of what goes on in the head. I can't speak for others but I have always been an avid diary keeper. I have kept a diary since I was 7 and every day of my life is documented. I almost never read my diary entries after I have entered them but they do have their uses. Since the advent of digital photography, I began to make fewer and fewer diary entries. Photographs take over the need to write anything. 

Have the photos helped me in any way? Oh yes they have and many times too. I'll just recount one incident. A few months ago there was a thunderstorm and for some reason, something snapped in the electronic auto-gate of my house. We couldn't open the gate and the cars parked within could not be taken out. I needed to act quickly. I looked at the fuse box and there were hundreds of switches. Which controlled the gate? I also looked for the key that could unlock the gate manually but I had a whole chest of keys and there were thousands of them.  Which one was the right key?  

I vaguely remembered that three years ago, I had my gate repaired. I went into Google Photos and typed 'gate'. All the photos I took that had something to do with the gate appeared. As it turned out, when the gate repairer repaired my gate three years ago, he showed me the key to the gate that I should use in a moment of emergency. I took a picture of it  I also took a picture of the correct switch in the fuse box that controlled the gate.  Everything I needed was in my album of photos and all were searchable in Google Photos.

You can never go wrong for taking a photo.