Do you get depressed looking at pictures from your youth?

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koven

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I was just going through some pictures on my blog ( http://mrelllis.tumblr.com/ ) and on my personal stash and I started feeling nostalgic looking back at all the good times even though most of these pics were taken in the last year.

Im in my mid 20s and I know I wont look or feel the same in 10 or 20 years, life wont be the same either with added responsibility and stress. I started feeling depressed about getting old for some reason and thought Id never be able to experience these times again. Memories are memories, but when you have psychical or visual proof of a moment, it becomes something more.

How do so you older guys deal with looking at pictures from the past? Are you just happy to have had that memory or do you ever want to go back? Or is life better?
 
Life is way better for me at 66 than it was at 20, or at least now I take time to enjoy it more. You will, too.
 
Just live each moment, be present, remember each past moment for what it was, but don't attach to it, or to the future.
 
As you get older pictures are very important to help trigger memories! "Oh yeah!" is common when some old photos come to light. Generally, I documented happy times so it's fun to revisit those times. I look back and think I did not too bad in the fun and interesting department. Coulda done more though!

You're young: take it all in! Your body starts letting you down after 35! And you can't chase the past but it doesn't matter as there is always something to keep the fire stoked. Just takes a bit longer to recover!
 
My big regret from being young was not noticing that I was young.

I look at pics that I took when I was young and wonder where I have gone wrong. I never used to worry about composition and depth of field. The pics were more spontaneous and fun.

There are some photos of me when I was young. Now I live in denial. The last pic of me that I willingly posed for was 30 years ago.

My advice to you is .... enjoy every moment. Appreciate every beautiful young face/body that you come across. Take a photo of it all and post it here so all us old farts can envy you for being in the "young circle".

I really enjoy your blog.

Cheers
 
Life's what you make of it, and age has nothing to do w/ it. Don't ever for a second assume you'll be around 10 years from now. We're all temporaries, very fragile, and any of us could be gone in the next instant.

I don't like looking at current photos of myself. Just turned 60, and who IS that old guy I see in the mirror every morning? Funny thing is, I still feel like I'm the same person that I was when I was 18. My wife probably thinks I'm the same person I was when I was 8.
 
I was slender at age 24, and at age 54 I need to get back to that. But I have been married to the same wonderful woman for the past 31 years, I have three great adult children and, even with bouts of unemployment the past four years, I wouldn't trade any of it to be 24 again. So, no, I don't get depressed looking at pictures from my youth.
 
Pix of my childhood and adolescence are immensely depressing to me. But only because they are a jarring reminder of how miserable I was.

:p
 
Do I wish I was 20 again? You bet. Who wouldn't want to be able to live it twice. But I love looking at photos from that period ( now more than 30 years ago). Sure it makes me nostalgic, but not sad. I only wish I had more photos. And that's my one piece of advise. Keep taking those pictures. I find that even those photos that were relegated to the bottom of the box back then, now have meaning for me.
 
images from the past don't sadden me at all...as far as i can tell.
what makes me sad is watching my peers die off, most of my older relatives are gone...i hate when people i liked are gone...famous people, like whitney today...sinatra was a killer for me...
 
One advantage (possibly the only one) of getting old(er) is that you can give advice about life - and be ignored by the young.
My biggest regret is probably that I didn't shoot enough of my life in the 20's - and unfortunately, what I shot mostly got lost in one the many moves (one box of negative binders looks like any other box and got mislaid, never to be found.
What is interesting is that the stuff you documented then had seemingly little interest or value - 40+ years later it is far more interesting!!!!
I am also happy that I did a lot of the stuff then that I can not do today. Never postpone a project/idea "I will do that later" - Later rarely arrives when it suits you!
Oh, another benefit of old age. I have been shooting my whole life and my "private" stuff has mostly been with triX - I dont need a meter anymore. Experience does count.
I dont envy youth - I wish them luck and hope they will enjoy life as much as I have enjoyed mine.

So keep track of your images, keep them safe and when in doubt, shoot another roll.
 
Nostalgic? All I can say is I enjoy looking at the old photos as it is who I am and who the people were and it is all part of a "oneness". Cannot separate it from now.

Do I wish I were 15 again? 25? 35?:eek:

God, no. I do not wish to suffer through what I have already done...again. Watch loved ones die again. Make the stupid mistakes again. Watch myself getting older again. I reckon our Maker knew what he was doing then as well as now because I sure would not want to trust it all to me!

Do I like being older? No, not at all! Do I like being retired? Not NO...but HELL NO! Am I content with where I am? Yes, because how could it be any other way?:angel: Besides, once we get to a certain age, we can pretty much do whatever we want to.;):p
 
koven said:
I was just going through some pictures on my blog ( http://mrelllis.tumblr.com/ ) and on my personal stash and I started feeling nostalgic looking back at all the good times even though most of these pics were taken in the last year.

Im in my mid 20s and I know I wont look or feel the same in 10 or 20 years, life wont be the same either with added responsibility and stress. I started feeling depressed about getting old for some reason and thought Id never be able to experience these times again. Memories are memories, but when you have psychical or visual proof of a moment, it becomes something more.

How do so you older guys deal with looking at pictures from the past? Are you just happy to have had that memory or do you ever want to go back? Or is life better?
Click to expand...


Just thinking...why on earth would someone so young be worried about getting old and nostalgic? There is hope for the world even now....;)

Here's a thought to carry with you. 35 years ago, I was in my 20s. I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.:)
 
All I see is happiness, I guess I'm a half full guy. I have 100s of pictures of friends, family, co-workers. It is just great to look at them, here is me taking a photo of my mother:

5644331333_5166ecdb4d.jpg


Or my brother when I wanted to finish a roll so I could develop it while I couldn't go out shooting:

2390399412_e5f14b5f45.jpg
 
koven said:
Im in my mid 20s and I know I wont look or feel the same in 10 or 20 years, life wont be the same either with added responsibility and stress. I started feeling depressed about getting old for some reason and thought Id never be able to experience these times again.
Click to expand...

Geeez!..When I was in my mid 20's I never thought about tomorrow much, let alone in 10 years time!

I'm nearly 50 now, 3 of our sons have left home, only 1 at home now. I feel like the fun times are just getting started...life's good.

Don't waste today worrying about tomorrow, or you will have regrets in 10 years time. You will have worried your youth away and be old before your time.

Do I feel depressed looking at old pictures of myself? No.

Life is what you make it. My parents call my wife and I 'the ageing teenagers'...everytime I hear that it makes me smile inside.

Instead of being on here asking us old farts these questions, you should be out there making memories.....Seriously.

-Greg
 
Not much to say on the subject. Nostalgia rose tints everything. You'll look back on the photos you're taking today in a few years and be depressed you're not living the life you were when you took those photos.

I like your Dir En Grey photos though.
 
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