meridian_rose

Title: Photography
Fandom: Original
'Verse/Series: Aura
Index Page for this series: DW / LJ
Pairing/Characters: Nikolai
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 487
Prompt: For the

writerverse word count challenge: 487 words
Summary: Nikolai takes some photographs and muses on science and superstition
Content Notes: No standard warnings apply.

Nikolai took a dozen shots with his camera. He'd taken plenty of classes over the years and, after viewing his initial shots, he began to play with the camera settings to try and get the best photo of the cityscape.

A true purist would use film, wouldn't trust the digital camera, would scoff at the cheating involved by using the inbuilt light meter and so on. Photoshop would be out of the question. But Nikolai was merely an amateur artist who loved to try out new technology and learn to use what he liked, discarding the rest.

He took another thirty shots because he could, and that was one of the many things to love about the digital era. Yes, it captured the essence of some of the more worrying aspects of modern life in the instant gratification it provided (no developing needed) and the disposable nature of things (he'd probably trash all but two or three photos)-but it also meant that things could be recorded, saved, shared. That was worth something.

Technology like this meant that experimentation was easy and cheap and accessible, giving more opportunities for people to play and discover and invent and create. Which was worthy in and of itself.

Some worried that the constant surveillance of CCTV, satellite images, camera phones, would unmask them. Nikolai had no such fears. Modern media had already supplied many an excuse or explanation he and his kind could use. Everyone had a twin. He just looked exactly like his ancestors. Vampires weren't real. And on the off-chance they were, vampires didn't photograph anyway, right?

That last depended on the reasoning behind it. If it were due to the presence of silver halide crystals in film and the alleged vampire allergy to silver, then it would have been true in the past but digital images would be possible. (Humans were somewhat right about the silver and wrong about the film.)

If it was something to do with light, and the vampire's aversion to daylight, then photos at night could be taken but not daytime ones. But the deleterious effect of sunlight was a partly true, mostly misguided belief about his kind.

If it was a question of spirit, that only those with souls could be seen in mirrors or photographs then Nikolai need never worry about the existence of an afterlife. He'd never understood why humans could be so emphatic that only humans, not (other) animals, had souls, and yet also develop a belief that reflection equalled soul, when cows, cats, and even house flies had reflections.

You could live for centuries and not understand people. Nikolai had, and continued to ponder existence, his own and that of others both like him and not.

The sun's rays peered over the spire of the cathedral below. Nikolai took several more photographs. He'd never got the hang of painting but photography was a wonderful invention he had wholeheartedly embraced.