Many of you know that I am a photograph “nut.” I have always been crazy about photos. I was always the one who could sit through the display of slides about anything and truly enjoy it or look at photograph albums for hours. And I am still a “nut” about photographs.
If you are my friend on face book, you know I am trying to take one photo a day. I have found it much easier to do than I thought it would be. Some of the subjects are not very exciting but it makes me realize that everyday is special and at least one thing a day is important.
This blog will probably be continued in several blogs, as I seem to have a lot to write about photographs. First and foremost, photographs record memories that become dearer as we get older. It is dealing with photographs, of the life with my husband and children that have eased the pain of losing him to a brain tumor six years ago. A couple of years ago I decided to sort all of our photographs in chronological order. At first it was difficult to look at each one without feeling a terrible sense of loss. However, as I kept working on it, I realized that in almost every photo of my husband and myself together, he either had his arm around me or was holding my hand. This was a comforting thought to me. But as I continued with the sorting, I was also reminded, by the gaps in time of some of the years, that there had to be opportunities to take photographs when we didn’t.
True, using film that had to be developed was more costly and many times several events would be on one roll sent to the developer and we were conscious of the cost being incurred. I am so grateful for the digital camera today. I don’t take nearly so many bad photos as I used to, but even with the digital, not every photo is perfect. I am getting older and find that sometimes my photos look good on the digital camera screen, only to be found later to be out of focus or blurry (usually due to my being unsteady in holding the camera).
I am able to carry my small digital camera with me at all times, so I really do not have any excuse not to be ready for that “unusual” or “special” photograph. I have become very good at shooting through the car window (both as a passenger and when driving – well that is not as bad as texting!!!) But many a beautiful sunset had to be caught at that right moment, regardless!!!
Of course, there are times when I am not very popular with my family and friends – I hear remarks such as “here we go again, “ “Don’t show me below the waist,” “I don’t take a good picture, leave me out” etc. At those times I have to become very inventive and snap when the opportunity arises. And as a rule, those photos are the better ones than the posed ones.
I do urge you to take more photographs and to always remember to identify them. Again, with digital that is much easier, as when you download them to the computer, you can right click on the photo with your mouse and select “properties”. When the window opens you will see a tab showing summary and when you open that you can identify your photo, as to name, where it was taken and other information you want to include. If you prefer to print your photo out, use a photograph pen (can be ordered from Creative Memories or any other scrapbooking supplier) to identify your photo. Using a ball point pen, or even some pencils, will show through on the photo side of the print.
Tomorrow I will continue this talking about older photographs. Don’t want to bore you with all of this in one night!!! So will end tonight with hugs and love to you all.
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