Dear LPG,

If LPG has managed to post this message on the day I requested, I need to start it by saying, Happy Mid Summers day.  This celebratory day is often thought of with joy and just a tinge of regret, because we all know that being the longest day of the year, the day heralds the shorter days that are to come, but there is more to celebrate than that.

For the last eight years this has also been christened National Selfie day, the Day you can turn the camera on yourself without being known as vain.   Interestingly enough the first ever selfie was recorded as having been taken by Robert Cornelius in Philadelphia way back in 1839, but he set up the shot, triggered the camera and then moved around the front in time to be part of the picture. Do you remember the invention of the delayed action camera that helped families to include the picture taker because there would be a pre-set amount of time between the triggering of the shot and the time it was taken?   I suppose Mr. Cornelius’s experience was like that but with the added advantage of a little exercise involved, because he had less time to get in front of the lens.

Now, of course, nearly every mobile phone has at least two camera lenses, one each side, and we all remember the invention of the selfie stick, which we have an Australian named Wayne Fromm, who was drunk at the time, to thank for.

I know it is a fun celebration, but I would like to say something which I want to direct to all those people who don’t like taking pictures of themselves. Even if you only do it once a year it is a good idea to take a picture of yourself, or get someone you trust to do it for you.  Apparently the holiday dictates that you should also post that picture somewhere on the internet but, even if you don’t have the nerve to do that, a collection of such pictures taken over the years, will have two advantages for you.

Firstly, you will be able to see the changes in your appearance as you get older, like it or not, and secondly, none of us are going to be here for ever and pictures, selfies or not, will allow our family’s’ future generations to know that little bit more about us, even when the gap between the beginning of their lives and the end of ours is relatively vast.

So, I am sending my message out in the hope that it will encourage a few of those more camera-shy readers a good reason to be brave just for today… 

HW, Catford.

LPG found a little information…

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