Do you take a lot of photos?
I do.
It seems I take too many photos of things that don't matter much any more, or at least I used to.
I like to think I am a better photographer now than I was 30 years ago.
I suppose time (and my kids) will be the judge of that.
I also wish I had taken more pictures of my kids when they were little.
It seems I have too many pictures of scenery and things that don't matter so much now.
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about moving and how our family is in a continual state of transition.
{ http://steppinoutwithdwntwn.blogspot.com/2011/02/families-in-transition.html }
If you read the blog then you know its been 5 years since we started packing up and heading to Oregon.
The moving truck arrived June 26th, 2006.
2 weeks after that I had most everything unpacked and put away in the house.
Or so I thought.
Today I am still going through a few unopened boxes left stacked in the garage.
The moving company did a very good job of labeling the boxes so I was fairly confident that the remaining boxes were meant to be kept, but it wasn't necessary I open them for our day to day life.
Today I opened the last 3 boxes.
The contents were for the most part as expected.
But I was treated to:
almost a ream of printer paper...we were nearly out.
A box of envelopes... who can't use more envelopes?
and a half ton of old photographs.
There were old papers and documents, (that should have been tossed prior to the move),
and quickly made their way to the recycling bin.
But the photos...
I brought into the house.
I am glad that technology has advanced and photos are easily stored on the computer or discs now.
The space taken up on discs in comparison to the physical photos, and negatives is minute.
But I am also sad to think that someday down the road my kids won't have the pleasure of sitting together, sifting and sorting through the Kodak envelopes filled with photos.
There is something about peeling back the self stick flap,
pulling out a paper folder of negatives and photos,
and wondering what pictures might be hiding inside that is exciting to me.
I saw pictures today that spanned 30+ years.
It was a bit like leafing through your life as if it had been photographed, catalogued, and neatly assembled in a coffee table style book...
except the book wasn't assembled chronologically.
My 'paper sack', 'moving box' storage method is anything BUT chronological.
Today, I didn't mind so much.
I have never liked leaving the "Time/Date" stamp on my camera.
As a photographer, I always believed the blaring red date stamped on the front right corner compromised the photo.
And...
I have never been good about writing on the back of the pictures the date or the people in the picture. I will admit, my family disagrees with me. They have been known to complain asking.
"How will we know who this is and when the picture was taken?"
I am pretty good at recognizing 'who and when', primarily by who I was pregnant with or when I had given birth..
When you have 8 children, I suppose that is the gage for a lot of events.
For example...."that must be #1's senior year because #8 is celebrating her 1st birthday'....
I do enjoy photography., perhaps too much.
I have been trying to take pictures that will appeal to the family.
Some of my kids are good at posing and love being in front of the lens.
Others dodge the camera making it an extreme challenge to capture them on film/disc.
And I will admit that I take too many pictures that will appeal to No One but me.
Regardless...
too many photos,
not enough photos,
I enjoyed sorting and sifting through tons of pictures today.
I sat in the garage all by myself and reminisced.
I laughed.
And I cried.
Tonight as I went through the rest of the photos with some of the family.
There was more laughter,
and more tears.
Tomorrow I will add this box of photos to the others already in the closet.
I will set them all aside and forget about them until the next time comes to clean out the closet.
I can see myself someday sifting and sorting through the boxes of photos, laughing and crying at the same time, all over again.
However, next time I hope that I am not sitting all alone in the garage.
I hope I am sitting around the kitchen table with all my kids so that together we can reminisce and catalog the 'who & when'.
{ I will most likely regret posting this old photo, but it is a great example of a picture that made me laugh. Recently I reminisced with my brother how our folks loved to dance, especially my dad. My brother and I used to practice dancing at home before a big school dance. If my memory serves me, I was a junior, maybe a senior in high school.
He is a couple of years younger.
Our mom took this photo prior to our dates arriving.
I don't miss those big glasses, but I do miss those skinny arms! }
Perhaps I should sort through all the photos, alone, just one more time
prior to my kids getting their hands on them.
There very likely could be photos more embarrassing than this one!
Do you hang on to embarrassing photos or delete them right away?
Steppin' out with DWNTWN
DWNTWNimages.me
I do.
It seems I take too many photos of things that don't matter much any more, or at least I used to.
I like to think I am a better photographer now than I was 30 years ago.
I suppose time (and my kids) will be the judge of that.
I also wish I had taken more pictures of my kids when they were little.
It seems I have too many pictures of scenery and things that don't matter so much now.
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about moving and how our family is in a continual state of transition.
{ http://steppinoutwithdwntwn.blogspot.com/2011/02/families-in-transition.html }
If you read the blog then you know its been 5 years since we started packing up and heading to Oregon.
The moving truck arrived June 26th, 2006.
2 weeks after that I had most everything unpacked and put away in the house.
Or so I thought.
Today I am still going through a few unopened boxes left stacked in the garage.
The moving company did a very good job of labeling the boxes so I was fairly confident that the remaining boxes were meant to be kept, but it wasn't necessary I open them for our day to day life.
Today I opened the last 3 boxes.
The contents were for the most part as expected.
But I was treated to:
almost a ream of printer paper...we were nearly out.
A box of envelopes... who can't use more envelopes?
and a half ton of old photographs.
There were old papers and documents, (that should have been tossed prior to the move),
and quickly made their way to the recycling bin.
But the photos...
I brought into the house.
I am glad that technology has advanced and photos are easily stored on the computer or discs now.
The space taken up on discs in comparison to the physical photos, and negatives is minute.
But I am also sad to think that someday down the road my kids won't have the pleasure of sitting together, sifting and sorting through the Kodak envelopes filled with photos.
There is something about peeling back the self stick flap,
pulling out a paper folder of negatives and photos,
and wondering what pictures might be hiding inside that is exciting to me.
I saw pictures today that spanned 30+ years.
It was a bit like leafing through your life as if it had been photographed, catalogued, and neatly assembled in a coffee table style book...
except the book wasn't assembled chronologically.
My 'paper sack', 'moving box' storage method is anything BUT chronological.
Today, I didn't mind so much.
I have never liked leaving the "Time/Date" stamp on my camera.
As a photographer, I always believed the blaring red date stamped on the front right corner compromised the photo.
And...
I have never been good about writing on the back of the pictures the date or the people in the picture. I will admit, my family disagrees with me. They have been known to complain asking.
"How will we know who this is and when the picture was taken?"
I am pretty good at recognizing 'who and when', primarily by who I was pregnant with or when I had given birth..
When you have 8 children, I suppose that is the gage for a lot of events.
For example...."that must be #1's senior year because #8 is celebrating her 1st birthday'....
I do enjoy photography., perhaps too much.
I have been trying to take pictures that will appeal to the family.
Some of my kids are good at posing and love being in front of the lens.
Others dodge the camera making it an extreme challenge to capture them on film/disc.
And I will admit that I take too many pictures that will appeal to No One but me.
Regardless...
too many photos,
not enough photos,
I sat in the garage all by myself and reminisced.
I laughed.
And I cried.
Tonight as I went through the rest of the photos with some of the family.
There was more laughter,
and more tears.
Tomorrow I will add this box of photos to the others already in the closet.
I will set them all aside and forget about them until the next time comes to clean out the closet.
I can see myself someday sifting and sorting through the boxes of photos, laughing and crying at the same time, all over again.
However, next time I hope that I am not sitting all alone in the garage.
I hope I am sitting around the kitchen table with all my kids so that together we can reminisce and catalog the 'who & when'.
{ I will most likely regret posting this old photo, but it is a great example of a picture that made me laugh. Recently I reminisced with my brother how our folks loved to dance, especially my dad. My brother and I used to practice dancing at home before a big school dance. If my memory serves me, I was a junior, maybe a senior in high school.
He is a couple of years younger.
Our mom took this photo prior to our dates arriving.
I don't miss those big glasses, but I do miss those skinny arms! }
Perhaps I should sort through all the photos, alone, just one more time
prior to my kids getting their hands on them.
There very likely could be photos more embarrassing than this one!
Do you hang on to embarrassing photos or delete them right away?
Steppin' out with DWNTWN
DWNTWNimages.me
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