Tech Info: Nikon D300s | 50mm | ISO 800 | f/2.5 | 1/800s
From the Smart Phone Slaves series.
When I started trying out taking pictures of strangers, I was so lost. The streets can be really busy. If you pay attention to all the things happening on the streets of any major downtown, you’ll soon realize how chaotic it can be.
But there seems to be a pattern in that too. Put yourself in a corner of a busy intersection and start to observe the behavior around. You’ll soon see the pattern emerging from that chaotic world we live. So instead of trying to capture every little story that happens on the street by shooting hundreds of frames and managing to keep only a couple of keepers in them, I restricted myself to only one pattern I found very interesting and is also obvious; smart phone slavery.
Yes, thats how I look at the usage of cell phones these days. No doubt they have improved our lifestyles in so many ways, but we seem to be engrossed in them all the time. Often I get the feeling that those smartphones are literally controlling our attention span in every facet of life.
Its a known fact, that a very high percentage of people use their phones while they drive. Whats more surprising is that an equal amount of people also text (SMS) while driving. Sometimes I find the warning signs which says “No texting while driving” very funny, but that emotion quickly sends a chill down the spine when you see somebody merging into your lane while texting.
There can be umpteen number of incidents that can be attributed due to the negligent usage of smartphones. Here is an interesting game you can play. Next time when you are out on a street, put down your phone and just watch how others use it while doing so many tasks – including dangerous ones like crossing the road while looking at the phone, pushing a baby stroller and crossing the road etc. You’ll be surprised at your find.
With my recent outing to SFO, I made an attempt to capture some of them. So here is the first of the series and more to follow in the coming days.
Whats the scariest thing have you seen people do while on their phones?
Hover your mouse over the image to see the Before version.
Whats the scariest thing have you seen people do while on their phones? If you will, share it with us.