What was tends to be forgotten. Not purposely of course, it just gets tucked away deep in the universe and pushed so far back that it falls off into a dark paradigm.
It’s circa 1994, a January Sunday and I’m 8 years old. My life isn’t perfect, but in this very moment it is. In this house I am at peace. That cup was my favorite. Green glass with grapes on it. My Mamaw gave me that watch and I thought it was the grandest thing ever. Green emeralds lined the inside of it. We’re having fried spam. One of the very few days Mamaw didn’t cook a big meal. Sundays after church we usually ate sandwiches. Mom is preparing Jess her meal and Papaw is saying “Little Jess, just eat it” as my sister protests mayonnaise. There are cows decor everywhere. That salt shaker was a doozy and that “tator salad” as Pap called it was nothing to write home about. It’s funny the things we remember and the things we wouldn’t remember without this photo. Who took this photo though? It was probably my Aunt Brenda and she must have not said “hey everyone, look this way!” I’m glad she didn’t…
Tonight I glanced over a lot of my photos and being a photographer I have several, but I noticed one distinct quality that seemed to repeat itself. Everyone seemed so posed and unnatural in a lot of them. The digital age. The age of the back of the camera screen, a delete button, and culling processes that leave us with posed “perfect shots” every single time. That’s wonderful and all. We have the BEST photos in history…or do we? What is “perfect shots” though? What makes a photo worthy? Worthy in that moment or worthy 20 years from now?
This photo. That’s what a perfect shot is. A flash back in time just the way it was naturally occurring. No poses. No startled faces as the photographer yells “hey everyone!” Just a “fly on the wall”snapshot. My absolute favorite.
I remember the grief I felt after my Mamaw passed away and then my Papaw deciding to move out of the house they had lived in my entire life. I remember picking up my camera and going into each room and taking a photo of it. To some it would have seemed like a real estate shoot or some weird photos that were taken by mere accident, but to me they were photos of rooms that I had lived in my entire life. Rooms I had played with my cousins in and rooms I had ate the best suppers in the world in. I took photos of the bath tub, the sink, a silly sign Mamaw always made me write and put up to keep people from putting toilet paper in the toilet, the kitchen where I envisioned Mamaw standing there cooking and even Papaw’s recliner where he sat and ate his popcorn while watching baseball. I just took photos. Photos without any real rhyme or reason. Just random photos.
Make it realistic. Make it natural and don’t be so quick to delete something you think isn’t a good photo. It’s the ones that seem terrible now that will leave you with the most memories later. Take a photo today of what is because someday it will be what was.
They won’t always pose the way you want them to. Take the photo anyways. You’ll enjoy the ones like this way more than the posed.
Sometimes great photos come along when you are just messing with your new camera. So get out and just take photos.
Don’t be afraid to take photos at awkward times. Times when you think others may look down on you. I wouldn’t take a million dollars for this photo of my Dad preaching one Wednesday night. No special night. Just special to me.
Someday your child will need to know what his/her childhood looked like. GET YOUR CAMERA OUT and shoot!
Take photos worthy of tears.
Take photos even when they tell you “do not take a photo of me!” Someday they will be all you have!
Capture the good times…
and even the sad…
because in the end, the photos tell a story of the life that made us.
samjembryphotography 