Smiles

Friends and I have come up with a photoblog site, Smiling People are Happy. I can’t seem to add links to my entries in the office, so please refer to the sidebar for the link. We’re still having teething problems so please be patient. Will advertise for it more when the blog is more presentable. Darn it I really should learn how to use photoshop (or at least just get the bloody software first).

Was scrolling through random blogs (due to absolute boredom) and looking at pictures of smiling people. And realized that the camera, like the mirror can be unforgiving. While the mirror reveals imperfections like wrinkles, the camera reveals in tt split second, the general mood of the person. Yes, we usually smile when we pose for pictures, but yet there can be many different kinds of smiles: genuine beaming ones, wry, sinister, with a tinge of uncertainty/sadness/confusion etc.

Remember watching a documentary on Discovery eons ago, can’t even remember the title. It was interesting, they looked at the photos of high school girls in their yearbook. One girl was beaming, radiant and in her eyes you could tell she was looking forward to a bright future filled with happiness. The other girl was smiling no doubt, but there was this tinge of sadness and cynicism that was apparent even to me, the television viewer.

So after forty years these women were now in their fifties, and Discovery tracked them down, and interviewed them to ask what happened in their lives etc.

The first old lady married her high school sweetheart soon after graduation, supported him thru med school, stayed home and took care of their children who have since grown up and started their own families. She and her husband have a loving relationship with a close-knit family, and from the interview the look from her eyes, the same radiant look was still there, even though her face was now lined with experience. She was at peace with herself.

The second one married too, but it was a tumultuous relationship that ended in divorce, and she ended up having to single-handedly bring up her children, who eventually became delinquent/criminal etc. (you have to pardon my memory, but the gist is there) During the interview you could tell she became this cynical old lady, but you can’t blame her cos her life wasn’t smooth-sailing.

The conclusion from that was that even though your mouth is smiling, it is the eyes you need to focus on to tell if the person is genuinely smiling and happy. And you can tell/predict the outcome of a person’s life just by looking at his/her eyes during a snapshot.

I totally agree with the first statement. When I look at photos from the past when I was going through unhappy moments, though I was smiling there was still this sad look in my eyes, and because of tt I didn’t look pretty. (it was a makeover shoot, I had perfect hair and makeup but I still didn’t look good and couldn’t relax during the shoot. Photographer said I looked fierce in a lot of shots, I agreed.) During happier times, I had this radiant look in my photos (quote tj, I don’t make stuff like this up). I think the smiley happy eyes still can be detected in majority of my photos (correct me if I’m wrong)

For the second statement, well I find that a hasty judgment. We all have off days in which we’re tired/sad/not feeling well, and naturally that will affect our mood during the day of the photo-taking. But I also do notice tt some of my friends tend not to smile, or not smile widely in their photos. Please do! It makes you look younger, prettier and happier. And guys, I dunno why but they just dunno how to smile.

S.M.I.L.E! It makes the world a brighter place.

(as you can tell, I’m bored, hence this unnecessarily long essay)