I don’t pretend to be a photographer of any skill. I’m mostly a mom pointing-&-shooting and hoping for the best (and learning tidbits here and there on the side).
Do I let that keep me from snapping away?
Nope.
Poor composition, poor lighting, poor whatever — so what? I’m not taking the picture so I can win “photo of the year.”
I’m capturing moments. The everyday little things happening in my family’s life.
Yes, I’m learning some simple skills to improve my photography.
Yes, I’m keeping the mediocre and “bad” photos.
Why?
Because they tell the story.
See the picture above? It’s the only picture I snapped of Caden playing peek-a-boo with Harper. Because Caden decided right after I snapped the picture that he was finished with that game, and nothing I could do (even bribes) would convince him to play again.
But that’s okay. The photo still captures the moment. And the journaling can further tell the story.
Focusing on the purpose behind what I’m doing — the memory keeping vs the technical photography skills — helps me keep perspective and keep capturing the everyday moments in my life.
What helps you capture the everyday?
What a great blog entry/story Suzy – those everyday moments will bring you such joy many years from now. Just last week my adult daughter asked me if I had photos accessible – of her and her brother when they were little and in the same photo – oh YES I DO. We had such fun going thru my iPhoto library – scanned in the photos years ago from the negatives. They she used those old photos to create an adorable collage of the two of them thru the years. Those photos WERE NOT perfect or even fairy good – but memorable – yes!
Capture the moments every time you get a chance to pick up the camera – or iPhone!
Thank you for sharing your story, Diane! Isn’t that the truth? As a memory keeper, I sometimes get stuck trying to make things perfect. But when I look through scrapbooks from when I was a kid, I’m too focused on the stories & the memories to even consider the quality of the photos.
The one picture you did get is terrific! I often wish that I was a better photographer — or that I had a “camera in my eyes”! There are so many “moments” that I want to capture when I don’t have the camera handy. Thanks for reminding us that it is the “capture” of the memory that is important & not how perfect that “capture” is.
Amen to the camera in the eyes! It’d be so nice to blink, capture the image, & download straight from my brain. Don’t forget that words can capture memories that we don’t have photos for too.
That picture is fantastic!! Your kids are adorable! What a great post!
I have my iPhone and my camera easily accessible all the time, to the point where I don’t even put the lens cap on my camera unless we are going somewhere. From “my spot” in the house, I have a pretty good sneaky space to photograph my little girl if she does something unexpected or funny/cute, and I don’t want her to see me doing it. I am always taking pictures of Melody doing everyday stuff, usually posed after she has seen me, but it is still a struggle to just take the picture instead of keep her waiting while I try to get everything looking perfect.
I also try to photograph all of her artwork so that I can throw the paper copies away, but still have a record of her many hundreds of paintings and drawings, lol!!
Love that you leave the lens cap off. And what a great idea to photograph the artwork — I’m going to try that! Thanks.
Thank you so much for this post! I’m often embarrassed that I only use a point-and-shoot (I call it “push-button-stupid”) camera when so many moms are walking around with DSLRs! But, I can keep my camera easily accessible in my purse and snap photos in seconds. They may not be masterpieces, but the memories are captured.
Don’t be embarrassed by your “push-button-stupid” camera, Tammy! You’re doing the most important thing — capturing the memories. Years from now it won’t matter what camera took the picture.
i just saw this, and i HAD to share it. Thanx for your lovely article, it captures the essence of what we do as scrapbookers. Do i envy my friends with their fancy DSLRs and super professional-looking photos and photobooks? Of course i do. But i like to think that i’m also capturing some extra, the story, the emotion behind that imperfect shot from that little point-and-shoot, even if the raw photo won’t attract any ‘Likes’ from my friends if i post it just like that on facebook. It means something to me, and hopefully years down the road, it’ll mean something to my kids too. =)