Writing Prompt #8: Photograph

Groot, by EshivaOn August 14 I posted this to FaceBook:

Eshiva made a clay Groot. And I took a picture of it. Sometimes I’m concerned I take too many pictures and am not “in the moment” enough, but then I think, for these ephemeral projects, I like to snap a quick (even if it’s badly lit and out of focus!) photo because she sometimes immediately smashes said clay project and starts a new one. And the Groot was pretty cool.

I have a few thousand snapshots from my phone. Not even just my iPhone, but even before I had snapshots on my Razor, on whatever phone I had before that, and probably the one before that. Some of my earliest photos of my oldest son were taken with a crappy webcam because we were chatting with his daddy long distance.

I also have a few thousand photos taken with “real” cameras. My DSLR got a workout for a few years from 2005 – 2009 and then got abandoned for the ease of use of the camera in my pocket (aka my phone). I whipped it out this year, determined to take better photos of my kids. Determined to stop using hipstagram to take retro pictures of my kids that look like my own childhood photos.

When is it time to put down the camera and get involved in the now? You can’t tell me I won’t cherish those photos later. Last year I accidentally wiped out fourteen years worth of digital photos. I was heartbroken. I managed to save the bulk of them, but I know, I know, I am missing years worth of photos from 2008 – 2013. I gathered up what I could from FaceBook and a few other place I knew I had shared some of them. But that means most of my photos of my oldest are gone because he hates when I share photos of him. I’m missing hundreds of photos of my other two. Have I ever mentioned I have a memory like a sieve? I may randomly remember something we did, but chances are that I am living breathing example of “if there’s no photo then it didn’t happen”.

And art prints! I love just taking photos. It’s a fun hobby. So sometimes I’m snapping away and the kids are doing whatever they’re doing and sometimes I forget to put the darn thing down and do whatever it is with them. And they usually understand. I got some amazing shots while they were fishing over in Naples. I think they appreciated my not fishing with them that trip – every pole I touched wound up bait-less and fish-less ;) I had some well fed fishies under our feet that day!

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