New perspective in life – and in photography

Sandra (37) & Carsten (34) & son – Jamie (1,5 years) live in Munich, Germany

Carsten works in a bank - approximately 60 hours a week – even in these times. Sandra used to have her own studio as an alternative practitioner but is “just a mum” at the moment. Everything has changed in their life since little Jamie is there. To be able to document everything, Carsten bought a new digital camera two months before Sandra gave birth to little Jamie. Everything should have been perfect – so Carsten checked out diverse special interest photo magazines – mostly at the airport, because he has to travel a lot, surfed the internet for test results, checked out the latest test results of Stiftung Warentest and spend about 1hour in 4 different photo shops before he bought one. And surprise: he didn’t buy one of the test winners, but a Sony Cybershot – “because the design of this camera just caught me, it looked so cool and it had this Carls Zeiss lens – something very special. And suddenly the inferior picture quality from the tests weren’t interesting for me anymore, and I said to myself, well these tests are so professional and a normal person like me cannot recognize the difference, anyway. So I bought the one which made me really happy when looking at it.”
While Carsten seemed very organized and well informed, Sandra bought the camera for her and her parents completely differently: “I am a typical woman – emotions, emotions and trends – facts are not interesting for me.” Sandra says that there was this time when everybody spoke about these Exilim cameras – my best friends had one, my colleague had one – everybody had one. So when my parents decided that they also wanted a camera I just went to the next photo store and bought an Exilim camera. No idea if it was good – well everybody had one – so it couldn’t be that bad and everybody seemed very happy with it so I didn’t question it at all. I guess if they had the pink or coloured version at this time, I probably would have even bought one of those – typical.” And my parents are happy with it – they don’t understand any of the features – but this camera seems to be able to take good pictures no matter in which mode, that’s great. So when I am back home from time to time, I take the camera and reset everything and put it into the normal mode again, that’s really funny how many features are on the display by that time – but it still works!”

Carsten says he is completely different: ”I have to know exactly how the camera works, I study the manual until I know everything, otherwise you don’t use the camera to its full potential or you do something wrong or you miss out something very interesting. And imagine you film an exciting moment and then it didn’t work – everybody would be very upset.” So when the two got a video camera as a present for Jamie’s birth, Carsten spend two full evenings studying the instruction manual of the video camera – he wouldn’t use or switch it on before that.

Since Jamie is there, Carsten and Sandra use their digital cameras in a complete different way. “Before, we hardly ever used our digital cameras during the day or on normal days, unless we were on holidays, or for Ebay. Now everyday might bring something special that is worth capturing so we need to be prepared with a camera or video camera. Especially because we live far away from our families and Carsten has to work so much. They should all be able to take part on Jamie’s development, too.”
Now, Carsten sends out a picture newsletter with pictures of Jamie to all his friends around the world every 2-3 months.
So the two became intensive and hard working photographers – “No, its so much fun, our friends and family really appreciate it and are happy about these pictures and Jamie also will be – when he is grown up.” We even bought a digital picture frame for our parents, so that they always have the latest pictures and can take part on our and Jamie`s life, too.”
Another thing that came into her life as a mother are “picture books.” Sandra says, that she has met so many mums who continue producing one picture book after the next about their baby`s development and she also got one from a baby birthday she was with Jamie. "On www.fotoalbum.de/ or http://www.myphotobook.de/ you can even become creative and put together your own picture book for your friends and family. I would have never done this before I became a mother, but these kind of “cheese things” are now popular.”

“Today, the children grow up differently – in relation to digital cameras – and compared to our youth. I have met 7 -10 year old kids who already have their own Canon Ixus cameras and the little ones get their baby digital cameras. Children always want to see the picture immediatelyafter it has been taken – they have learnt it no other way, they expect to see it – they could never imagine that it took us a week – in the past – until we could see our holiday pictures.”

While Sandra is really interested in a semi professional digital reflex camera, because “you really see the difference in pictures and our child should be worth it.” Carsten is not convinced, yet, because “it needs to be small and practical and you need to be spontaneous – that’s not really possible with such a huge and professional camera. And I would also be afraid that Jamie destroys it – he loves to through around things.”

Insights:

• With a baby – suddenly every moment gets valuable and worth capturing by a camera
• Family: New stage in life in which photography and picture get a different meaning/ purpose and a much higher value – for all “interest groups”.
• Emotions can win at POS over testing facts
• Children grow up with a complete different relationship to cameras – they get in touch with digital cameras at a very young stage – here brand connection should already start!