Found Pictures

I had a discussion with someone the other day about what average people (i.e., those who don't fancy themselves artsy fartsy photographer wannabes) use their digital cameras for, and we weren't really sure. So, to the Internet for the answer! I made the observation that digital cameras name their pictures according to very regular schemas (e.g., IMG_XXXX.JPG where the X's are digits). Using some off-the-shelf file-sharing software, I searched for files matching these naming patterns, and downloaded absolutely everything found thusly.

What did I find? Well, after weeding through the disturbing number of pictures of people naked, engaged in assorted sex acts that I would rather I hadn't seen ... I found what you'd probably expect: Lots of pictures of children aged birth to ten or eleven, cats and dogs, badly-framed shots of families with huge toothy smiles plastered to their faces, people lounging on the beach, sport and hunting / fishing shots, and people dressed formally for weddings, balls, etc. What I hadn't expected was the enormous number of pictures of cars: Cars alone, people next to cars, people in cars, people fixing cars, cars in front of scenic locations, cars in garages, cars on roads. Well, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised—they did mostly look like Americans, after all.

So, if all I knew of these people's lives was their pictures: They're usually average-looking, poorly attired, and smiling. They spend rather a lot of time with family and on holiday—especially at beaches. Cars are very important in their lives. They rarely eat and never use the toilet. They have sex in strange places and wearing silly costumes. And, although it was fun to take a peek, I don't really want to know any more about them or their lives of quiet desperation.

There were, however, a few pictures that I actually enjoyed. Here are some of them. I made every effort to weed out any that looked professional. I desaturated, adjusted levels, and scaled all the images below; otherwise they are unedited, except where noted.