Smiling in pictures

[1981slater]

[Creepy-Snaps]

Smiling is natural, human, and in-born. Blind babies smile without ever seeing their parents or anybody else smile.

[ashlesha]

uh? fuck you, slater!

um, smile if you feel like it and don't if you don't? i usually do. being yelled at to smile is irritating, though. SAY CHEESE!

[Galen]

I smile in photos if I feel that I can convincingly pull off a realistic-looking one at the time.

Smiling is natural, human, and in-born. Blind babies smile without ever seeing their parents or anybody else smile.

Yeah this.

[Trevor]

OMG, there are such people who do it all the time. It is my wild guess that it's ESFj related.

[ashlesha]

Smiling is natural, human, and in-born. Blind babies smile without ever seeing their parents or anybody else smile.

i thought it might come to me but it still hasn't. what does this have to do with photos?

[1981slater]

i thought it might come to me but it still hasn't. what does this have to do with photos?

Good point: to me, "preparing for a picture" and "the rest of the day" are different.

[ashlesha]

? there's a difference between smiling on impulse and pretending to smile for a photo. unless you fake smile on a regular basis or automatically get the impulse to smile whenever you see a camera, in which case there wouldn't be much difference between the two scenarios. i'm confused lol.

[1981slater]

? there's a difference between smiling on impulse and pretending to smile for a photo. unless you fake smile on a regular basis or automatically get the impulse to smile whenever you see a camera, in which case there wouldn't be much difference between the two scenarios. i'm confused lol.

Nope. When I see a camera, I put my best war face

[ashlesha]

[1981slater]

Is that your best warface, private?

[Timeless]

The way I see it:

If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

[Creepy-Snaps]

i thought it might come to me but it still hasn't. what does this have to do with photos?

It's related because I'm saying it's natural to want to show/express happiness.

I voted 'it's weird people who don't smile'. I can understand sometimes not feeling up for being cheesy, or smiling if you feel artificial... but why not smile in general? And remember happiness instead of pain, even if that's what you're truly feeling at the time?

I think perhaps, people who don't smile in pictures, have some anger/bitterness/other focus than expressing their happiness. Something that's unhealthy. Even some of my more serious friends will still smile in pictures. People who don't smile just need to get over with and deal with what's bothering them. Acknowledge it and begin to heal.

[ashlesha]

i've seen your VI thread so i know you usually smile in pictures, but i have to say reading that post while seeing your straight faced avatar was kinda funny.

anyway, i think going from not smiling in photos to major emotional disturbance is too big of a leap, but whatever.

[Creepy-Snaps]

i've seen your VI thread so i know you usually smile in pictures, but i have to say reading that post while seeing your straight faced avatar was kinda funny.

I know. Was wondering if someone was gonna call me out on this. I've been thinking of changing it in the next day or so, if that counts for anything.

[Creepy-male]

It depends on the photo, if your trying to capture the moment with the camera then it is what it is, if your trying to take a photo for a brochure to advertise an apartment -- its probably best everyone is putting smiles on and channeling happiness whether they are or are not happy, if your taking a pictures of starving children in third world countries though its probably ridiculous to show them with a big enthusiastic happy smile rather than try to capture the despair of their circumstances. Then sometimes professional photographers take something like 1000+ pictures of someone and have a conversation with them, then shift through all the photo to find that single photograph that conveys what they are looking for and have it happen naturally through the course of the 1000 photographs.

I know my parents used to take family pictures and I hated that stuff, we would dress up, line up, smile, and all of that.... it was rehersed to the level of mechanical precision just to capture that perfect forced expression that let the outside world know how awesome our family was. Its fairly common, but I hate that kind of thing.

I like things that are more natural and I like people to have the freedom to express the whole range of emotions -- most family/social pictures people take they always feel that they have to smile. To me its boring, its like always listening to happy dance music, and then judging anything that isn't happy dance music as bad or something... when really theres nothing wrong with happy dance music or other things that aren't happy, its ultimately just capturing whatever mood you feel like capturing with a camera. Life isn't always happy, and people who always smile in pictures and feel its absolutely necessary annoy me because its like they want to reshape life through the camera into a world that is always happy, instead of capture reality as it is.

Its like they want to selectively ignore the negative aspects of life, and generally people like that are disconnected to the problems of other people and themselves and are usually cruel robots that inflict pain on other people with smiles and ignorant expressions. It just annoys me, that its an implicit social thing to always squeeze out a smile the moment someone sticks a camera in your face and hits the button, or else people start making all kinds of negative assumptions about you as a person.

[Creepy-]

It's related because I'm saying it's natural to want to show/express happiness.

I voted 'it's weird people who don't smile'. I can understand sometimes not feeling up for being cheesy, or smiling if you feel artificial... but why not smile in general? And remember happiness instead of pain, even if that's what you're truly feeling at the time?

I think perhaps, people who don't smile in pictures, have some anger/bitterness/other focus than expressing their happiness. Something that's unhealthy. Even some of my more serious friends will still smile in pictures. People who don't smile just need to get over with and deal with what's bothering them. Acknowledge it and begin to heal.

Contentedness overrides both pain and happiness usually. And boredom.

I have to disagree with you saying that not expressing happiness is a sign of something that's unhealthy, though. And focusing on it when you're emotionally distressed I don't see as a good idea. It seems like a form of escapism to me.

But it is all perspective anyway.