James Cutmore

This is a very strange tail, but one with lessons we could all perhaps learn from. 

In my day-job as picture editor on Focus Magazine, I am usually far too busy and serious for fun and frolics. But a couple of weeks ago I had the good-fortune to be invited to a press-preview of the new Lego Ninjago World ride at Legoland Windsor.

 Having been a huge fun of Lego since my early years (I think I got my first aged 2), I think that I was even more excited about our visit than my 2 young children.

 This being summer, and being in the UK, I expected to be soaked through within twenty minutes of arriving at the resort. However, for once the weather held and we were able to enjoy all the facilities while basking in glorious sunshine.

Our first stop was the Ninjago World area, where we were greeted by some life-sized Lego figures (brave people dressed in costumes, possibly slowly melting under there!). This was a bit hit with the children, who normally would be quite shy in similar circumstances.

We made our way through the twist and turns of the corridor to the ride, our anticipation building. Once on the ride, where were a mass of flailing arms and legs trying to defeat baddies and getting the highest scores possible.

 To be honest I had no idea what I was doing or whether I was doing it right, but I certainly got a good work-out. And, for the record, I got the highest score, just like a typical competitive dad. Although I’m not quite ready to quit my day-job and become a Ninja just yet.

 We then hit as many of the rides that the park has to offer, and what a great variety there is! My personal favourite was taking a slow boat-trip around the lake, and watching the sharks and rays underwater whilst aboard the Lego submarine.

The rides were pitched perfectly for my 5-year-old and 7-year-old; just enough to give them a thrill without scaring them silly. The Lego Friends town was a great place to enjoy an ice-cream and settle down to watch the show, with some impressive dance routines, singing and jet-ski antics.

 There is such a variety of things to do at Legoland, and in the past we have usually grown tired and ready for home by mid-afternoon. But as a family we were all having too much fun to even think about the time, or if we were tired.

The Ninjago ride is a great addition to what was already on offer, and now gets me into the mood for the new Lego Ninjago Movie that is due out in the UK on the 13th October 2017

 I really wish I would have been able to experience this as a child. But I will make do with having fun with my family and enjoying this special day as an adult. I can honestly say that this was the best day-trip we’ve had as a family. Next time, I think we’ll come and stay in the Castle hotel.

If the re-emergence and growing sales of vinyl have taught us anything, it’s that it’s not easy to completely ditch a format. And in the same way, it proves that some people still like to have something physical, rather than relying on hard drives and cloud storage servers to store and protect all of their precious music.

I believe the same is true of photography.

With the vinyl point in mind, I have been mulling over the possibility that we are on the verge of the rebirth of film cameras. My day job means that I keep up-to-date with technology trends, and I have seen more and more manufacturers introducing instant cameras (the latest being the Fujifilm SQ 10) that produce physical photos. And Nikon still have 2 film SLRs in their product range, although their rivals Canon have no such cameras in their line-up.

I have also, for the first time, started to take photos using instant film manufactured by the Impossible Project, using a reconditioned Polaroid 600 camera. And I love it.  

Can you imagine if you lost your collection of images from your hard-drive? I for one would lose many many memories, images that are stored nowhere else.

The problem is that all of these formats become obsolete within a few years. Who knows how long file formats such as jpegs and tiffs will last. Then there is the issue of storage. We used to use floppy discs and zip drives which are now long-dead. How long before USBs befall the same fate? There is a great post on this subject on http://www.economist.com/node/21553410 that illustrates this point better than I can.

Of course, with a digital photograph you can always print out your own versions, but as i know through experience, these prints fade and degrade much much quicker than a ‘regular’ photograph. The image is essentially ruined after about 7 years or so.

Perhaps the best way to combat this is to constantly update your storage systems, and keep more than one digital copy of every file. A photographer once told me that his motto was ‘if you have one copy of something, it doesn’t exist’.