THERE USED TO BE certain rules associated with monsters, and there was a degree of comfort in that. Zombies always took their time, shuffling along, dragging their limbs like overstuffed bags of garbage to the curb. That is, until Zack Snyder’s re-make of Dawn of the Dead, in which the zombies all drank Red Bull and sprinted like a Doberman looking for a bacon burger. Frankenstein was, well, kind of dumb. Werewolves were allergic to silver bullets, making them fair game for The Lone Ranger. Mogwais (you know, from Gremlins) were not to be fed after midnight, no matter what time zone you’re in.

TIME TRAVEL has a set of rules, but they seem to diverge into many different camps. Can you change the future by visiting it (The Time Machine)? Or is trying to change the future a dicey affair that might go either way (as in the Back to the Future trilogy? Can you only go one direction and not the other? Why should you be able to go backward in time to a place before your time-traveling vehicle of choice was invented? Does that make sense? Can you send your best friend to the past to impregnate your future Mom so she will give birth to you and re-program killer cyborgs to be your personal Secret Service detail (The Terminator series), or is that just icky?

Vampires had it the worst. They had natural enemies in garlic, crosses, holy water, stakes through the heart, they were vulnerable because they had to sleep in coffins all day, and they could easily be spotted because they couldn’t be photographed or be seen in a reflection.

ANYWAY, the other day I got into a vigorous discussion with a group of high school photography class students (it’s a long story) about whether or not a vampire can be photographed with a digital camera. Of course, one of the students leaned over and asked another, “Are vampires real?” expecting that I was too old and deaf to hear him. Here’s the logic: the original “silver” fixation that was the downfall of classic vampires and werewolves extended into the silvering method used to make old mirrors (hence no reflection). Silver is also a part of photography (it’s used in film and in the developing process), and it is most likely the reason Dracula never had a fashion spread in Vogue. The student’s intellectual curiosity got the best of them, and they actually tried to figure it out on their own, bright sparks that they collectively are.

So, young Padewan, if the silver is removed from the process, as it is in digital photography, doesn’t it follow that a vampire can be photographed now? I see a lot of online ads for HBO’s True Blood, Twilight, The Vampire’s Assistant and so on. Keep your iPhones and Canon Power Shots handy, and who knows, you may catch a budding Bela Lugosi in the making. But keep some garlic in your pockets just in case.

Loyd Boldman