Always Know Where Your Camera Is!

Dreams are one of the strangest things about being a human being. I had a girlfriend once, a lawyer, who claimed she never dreamed. Seemed suspicious. Me, I dream vividly and often and am frequently amazed at the intricate and involved plots of my dreams. I have no idea where my brain comes up with all the stuff it does.

A few nights ago, for instance, I had been assigned (?) to write a blog post about George Harrison. It was a pleasant encounter. Playing the role of a reporter, I accompanied George through a kaleidoscope of changing scenes and scenarios as he went about his life and talked about his music and his upcoming projects. I felt vaguely that I should have been taking notes. I was also troubled by the fact that I knew I should be taking some pictures of him for the report but I didn't have a camera with me; I had set it down somewhere and wasn't quite sure where it was.

In person he was confident, friendly, articulate and forthcoming, although you should take this with a grain of salt on account of it has no relation to fact or truth. Also revealing of my mindset and a telltale of my attitudes is that, as George and I ate lunch in a restaurant, I finally remembered I had my iPhone in my pocket. But I didn't get it out, thinking "I should wait till I find my real camera." By the way, he looked quite healthy and seemed content and in fine fettle.

In those very first confused moments as I woke up, I thought, damn, I should have looked harder for my camera, because George is dead and nobody else can take pictures of him now! I would have had quite the scoop.

Sure would have. As I say, my brain is strange.

Why George Harrison? No clue. I'd thought of fellow Beatle Paul recently because we mentioned Chris Floyd a week or two ago, and I had read Chris's interesting account of making a portrait of Paul. George and I share a birthday, but I know nothing more about him than anyone else does, am not particularly a fan, and hadn't thought about him or listened to his music in years. But I think I'll go put on "Pure Smokey." (Even though "Crackerbox Palace" might be more appropriate.)

So listen to this chorus one more time:

Always keep a camera with you! You never know who you're going to run into, or where.

Mike
(Thanks to the shade of George for the interview)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Speed: "Always Know Where Your Camera Is and Beware of Darkness."

Roberto: "After having read your two last posts, I thought that the 'Sumkinda lillyus' must not be the only interesting weed growing in your garden."

Mike replies: An understandable thought! But no, the only drugs I ever do are ibuprofen and caffeine and both in moderation.

toto: "You know what they say—pics or it didn't happen."

andy webster: "In a previous life as a psychotherapist I would sometimes discuss dreams with my patients. Typically they would look for meaning in the content of the dream but very often we found that the emotions attached to the content were more illuminating. Feelings which are repressed when awake seem to surface in dreams!"

marcin wuu: "I have lots of cameras in my studio space, and they are scattered all over the place. And I usually shoot two at the same time—a digital mirrorless as a kind of Polaroid preview of lighting, and analog. The analog is a big beast of a camera and it's always on tripod standing in the middle of the set, while the mirrorless I shoot handheld. And when I put it away to shoot the analog or to modify the lighting or whatever, I instantly forget where it is. And then I have to look for it in between all those other cameras in the semidarkness of the studio. Very frustrating experience, so I kinda know how you felt in your dream. One of these days I'm gonna get me a keychain that beeps when you whistle, and fix it to that blasted camera."

Ken: "In dreams, I can print directly from my photographic memory."

Neilclasper: "Having left a Fuji X100t in a bag in the overhead luggage rack on a train four weeks ago—apparently never to be seen again—I concur. Always Know Where Your Camera Is."

Marc Rochkind: "A perfect opportunity to use the camera of your dreams."

Comments

[robert e]

It would make little difference--cameras in my dreams typically jam, or are so slow-working that they might as well be jammed. Hm...

[Rich]

I have that dream a lot... well sans the George Harrison angle. I'm often looking for or missing some important component. A recurrent theme is walking a patient down endless corridors looking for the MRI scanner. Suppose it's a manifestation of my occasionally stressful job as a trauma center MRI tech.

[Stephen Scharf]

My Fuji X100T goes with me everywhere.

[Manuel]

If George Harrison were alive today, he'd be banging his coffin's lid and screaming 'get me out'.

[Ned Bunnell]

In my recurring dream I'm in a modern day remake of Blow-Up, the 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni where a fashion photographer originally played by David Hemmings believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. We've advanced so far technically in my dream that I'm using a Zeiss F/.01 implant cornea lens that automatically sends images to my editor at the Washington Post. I've accidentally scanned images as I was taking a walk of what I believe are the First Lady having an affair behind some shrubs on the White House grounds. I always wake from my dream when I realize the First Lady is Bill Clinton.

[I think dreams like that are called "nightmares," Ned! --Mike]

[Mike]

"In my recurring dream I'm in a modern day remake of Blow-Up, the 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni where a fashion photographer originally played by David Hemmings believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. We've advanced so far technically in my dream that I'm using a Zeiss F/.01 implant cornea lens that automatically sends images to my editor at the Washington Post. I've accidentally scanned images as I was taking a walk of what I believe are the First Lady having an affair behind some shrubs on the White House grounds. I always wake from my dream when I realize the First Lady is Bill Clinton."

Could be worse. Imagine if it was Mrs Trump.

[Rod S.]

I'm like your girlfriend, Mike.:)

I could almost say that I never dream, except for the rare times that I wake with an almost static scene in my head, just a situation that I'm in. There's never any back story or progression.

And I sure would like to know why I miss out on all the fun that others seem to have.

On the other hand, I can almost always immediately put my finger on the reason for the dream. Usually anxieties and concerns. But there's just so few to interpret.

[John Willard]

Myself and many others I know that have been to college still (into our 40s and 50s)have nightmares about missed classes or unprepared for tests. Weird.

[Richard]

Talking of "glasses", "spectacles" whatever made we wonder if there has ever been a reference in TOP to William Gibson's (maybe prescient) use of Zeiss Icons as a nod towards the future (Burning Chrome etc) - and given the regular occurrence of Zeiss on the pages here...

Maybe he's a reader

[Wayne]

Inspired by the post concerning the X100T left in the over head rack, I offer:

Always know where you are likely to leave your camera.

Although it has never happened with anything so precious as an X100T, I have this thing in my head that asks: Why are you putting this thing down here?, you know you are going to walk off without it. And then.......I guess it goes back to that comment you made a few months ago about people never really changing.

[Peter Komar]

When I worked as a Photographer for a Major Fortune 500 Company I had many "nightmares" regarding my camera not working or not being able to get the group shot arranged for one reason or another. This usually happened days before or the night before an important executive group photo session. I know why I had these dreams, it was being worried about the upcoming event but in your case the George Harrison just seems so out there, good dream story however.

[Rob]

The linked piece by Chris Floyd and the accompanying portraits of Paul McCartney are priceless. They brought back so many memories for me. I came of age in the 60s, and like all of my friends, was a tremendous fan of the Beatles. Some of Paul's post-breakup work is truly excellent, and it's too bad that he has gotten so little recognition for it. I think that his sin has been that he lives on while John Lennon, tragically, does not. Martyrdom has a way of coloring people's opinions.

I'm pretty sure that if I ever met Paul in person, I would attempt no photos other than the obligatory selfies.

[DavidB]

"...Myself and many others I know that have been to college still (into our 40s and 50s) have nightmares about missed classes or unprepared for tests. Weird..."

It's somewhat reassuring to know that others have this dream as well.

However, in my case, it actually happened. I failed to understand that the "graduate research hours" that appeared on my schedule was an actual class in which attendance was required. Ouch!

[Tom Duffy]

I have this dream on an all too recurring basis: I've set up my 8x10 view camera on my back deck, carefully compose my shot and leave, intending to return later when the sun has reached optimal position. I then forget about the camera until I suddenly remember at the conclusion of a heavy rainstorm.

[Adrian Malloch]

Recent studies on dream analysis dispense with much of the Freud/Jungian debate and instead frame it in a different way.
Namely, that in dreams our subconscious is putting us in a training programme to prepare us for our daily realities.
So, a Palaeolithic hunter would dream about Sabre-tooth tigers as that would be an unresolved fear that the subconscious was retraining Grok to deal with. Only when he is confident of dealing with the tiger in his dreams would he then feel confident of dealing with one in reality.
Photographers' fears are usually about not having a camera/film/ability to load the film/focus/ and any number of annoying things that prevent a phototgraph being taken successfully. The subconscious takes special delight in making us look foolish about it at the same time.
I always wake after such dreams with a sense of embarrassment and frustration at my dream-self's inability and it does give me fresh resolve to not be so complacent about future assignment preparation. Even to the extent that I now use a written equipment checklist instead of the previous mental one.

[Peter Croft]

In the 1990s I suffered with undiagnosed severe sleep apnea. I used to almost instantly fall asleep in my chair whenever I sat down alone at my computer. It was very noticeable that I also instantly started to dream. I think my brain was desperately trying to make up for the REM sleep I wasn't getting at night. I'm a believer that dreams and REM sleep are when your brain is sorting and processing the information it's received recently. (In July 2000 I started using CPAP. What a lifesaver, what a revelation!)

Also, back in the 1970s and early 80s, I went through a long period of undiagnosed depression. I remember saying to friends that I never dreamed any more. I didn't know why. But once the depression was diagnosed and treated, the dreams returned. They're more than just curiosities, they seem to be vital to our wellbeing. It's because our sleep rhythms are disturbed when we're depressed or just sleeping badly.

[JG]

The only time I have vivid dreams is during long afternoon naps. At times, they're almost as entertaining as going to a movie!

[Tom Burke]

Is it possible that the general public are better at this than photographers? Cell phone=camera, after all, and someone who's *not* a photographer possibly may have that relationship more firmly fixed in their mind than we do.

[Hendrik]

OT: Did I miss this on TOP or did you?:

Street style chronicler Bill Cunningham passes away at 87

Thanks for TOP.
Henk

[Geoff Morgan]

Are your dreams in Kodachrome, B&W, sepia or any one of the other colour or mono options (film or digital versions)?

[You laugh, but sometimes my dreams take the form of movies I'm watching, and the entire action of the dream sequence is a movie, occasionally with specific actors and camerawork and yes, color palette. And I'm not even a big fan of movies any more--I haven't watched more than a half dozen in any of the past half dozen years. --Mike]

[Dean Johnston]

Hiya!

> In a previous life as a psychotherapist...we found that the emotions
> attached to the content were more illuminating. Feelings which are
> repressed when awake seem to surface in dreams!"

Uh-oh! I had a full blown nightmare the other night. Serial killer type person creaking up the stairs, and I was unable to scream out a warning to my family. It was caught in the absolute iron grip of terrifying, um, terror in my throat, and no matter how hard I tried to force it out, no sound would emerge - in my dream. According to my wife, I managed quite perfectly in reality, thank you very much.

[Bourquek]

I'm often somewhat self-aware in dreams (not quite lucid dreaming) and my most common observation is: who writes this stuff? The writers need to be fired, seriously. If there's no limits to dreams, and you can do whatever you can imagine, why am I stuck in traffic running from zombies? Where's the Italian supermodels?

I don't mind that there's other people living in my head, I just wish they'd pull their weight.

[Dan Khong]

A close friend used to keep a record of all his dreams (in a diary next his bed cos you forget your dream by the time you reach the WC), and over the years came to a conclusion that his dreams had no bearing to outcome of events in his life.

When I was young, I would know that I was dreaming because another part of my brain would remember that I dropped off to sleep; knowing that, I would play along in my dreams. Does not happen now. Getting old.

[Geoff Morgan]

Mike, my question about whether your dreams are in Kodachrome etc was not aimed at being funny, I do sometimes have a sequence of B&W dreams, sometimes quite gaudy colour dreams and very often as movies.

[Sorry if I misinterpreted! I'm not aware of ever dreaming in B&W. Except when I'm awake of course. :-) --Mike]