What a dilemma we have created for ourselves with the advent of wonderful and affordable cameras. Now, rather than searching for even one ancestral photograph, our posterity will not know where to begin because of the number of photographs available to them.
Gone are the days of photo albums on the coffee table. Today, without serious effort, our photographs can live forever in our computers and never be seen by anyone but us. That is what I wanted to rectify by printing my favorite “story-telling” photographs for others to see. Families don’t sit at a computer to visit and talk about the fun things they have done . . . they sit on sofas and pillows and chairs.
The problem has increased as digital cameras have become common. I take far more pictures than I did when I had to buy and develop film. Most of the photographs should be deleted from my computer but I can’t always make myself do that. Thankfully for me, I don’t take pictures with my cell phone so I am not worrying about that but cell phones take beautiful photographs and I have had people tell me that they don’t use a regular camera anymore.
My goal has developed over time. It is to take photographs which tell a story. I want my family to be able to look at photographs I have taken and remember a special moment and talk about it. I have tried to develop my own style. I have tried to train my eye to look for the unexpected and unusual found in otherwise normal moments with potential to be worth saving.
My photographs are usually about my family. I hope to leave this life having recorded our time together. I also want my family to remember that “I was always there”, as evidenced by the things I saw and recorded although I may not always be in the photograph. Only now and then do I say “look at me and smile”. In fact, I am not sure that I say that at all anymore.
I generally use a telephoto lens and either a Canon 50D or a Canon Rebel. I also use a Tamron 50 lens. I have always used Canon cameras. Before I bought my first digital camera, I used a Canon 35 mm with both color and black and white film.
The photographs I am including in my MORTALITY series are my favorites. There is something about each one that makes me smile. A sampling of these photographs is found on this blog as MORTALITY: My Favorite Photographs.
How People Used to Look At Photographs and Talk to Each Other
-Grandma-