I had my camera with me the whole time.I could have taken a dozen photos of us playing with baby Joshua during the hour and 15 minutes we spent at Sarah's figuring out our plan for the day. Justin feeding him Cheez-its, Sarah standing him up on the table, every photo would have been adorable.
And when we ended up at Rio's and Emily joined us and we called Evan and Peter in Minnesota and sang Happy Birthday to Peter on speakerphone - that could have been a good shot, the group of us in a semi-deserted restaurant midafternoon on a Sunday, disturbing the few other customers with our singing.
After we saw Ratatouille we had time to kill and we went to the park and to the East Race ... I definitely should have taken a picture of Daniel pointing out the "no boating" sign right next to the kayak route.
I've been meaning to take pictures at soccer for ages and since I wasn't feeling well and sat on the sidelines half the game anyway, last night would have been a perfect opportunity to get some sport shots, especially of the little boys who joined us - a shot of 6-yr-old Vinnie scoring a goal would have been perfect. And at DQ afterwards, I ought to have taken a picture of Emily and Emily together.
This is why I bought a digital camera, right? So I could capture all of those moments?
But why do I have to capture them? Can't I let them be free?
Free of the worry that I'll someday forget. Free of the need to show others how much fun my friends are. Maybe next time, I won't even blog about it. We can have a great day and I don't need to prove it to anyone or feel validated by seeing it in text or on film. I don't need to plan for twenty years from now and try to make sure I remember each fun time we had. I do hope I remember, but the important thing is just that I live it now.
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PS - this is not a judgment on picture-taking in general! Just my own experience of wondering *why* I take photos and whether I always need to do so.
I really like blogging and picture taking. But I like to capture things. If it makes you feel like you're not living it, then sure, maybe that's not good. I understand that, i've thought about it before. But balance is key. Maybe, capture it and move on and keep enjoying the moment. I don't know, those are things I think about too. But then again, photography is my passion and I thrive on crystallizing and immortalizing moments I want to remember. But sometimes, I just put away the camera. It happens a lot with kids. I love to photograph children, but I don't want to miss taking part in the moments I so desperately want to get on camera.
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