I’m that person who takes 50 photos of their day. 100 photos if I’m actually doing something. Some people may laugh at it, but I think it’s so important.
I remember visiting my Nan’s house as a child and going through boxes and boxes of photos. I did the same thing with my Mum. Old photo’s from way back when, It was mesmerizing. Seeing pictures of my Nan’s wedding, pictures of my Mum as a teenager, pictures of my siblings as babies.. How cool is that?! Imagine being an old woman and having no photo’s of your life to look back on. I used to be the person who was way too embarrassed to ask someone to take my picture, who used to immediately throw my hands up in front of my face as soon as I made eye contact with that lens. I decided to stop being so scared and I started asking for my picture to be taken. What’s the worst that can happen?
Some people may think its a vanity thing, or judge someone for taking a million photos instead of just taking it in. But honestly, you can do both. Just because you’re taking the time to take a photo, doesn’t mean you’re not truly taking in the moment and who cares what other people think. I just know that the feeling I will get from looking back at these photos when I’m an old woman is more powerful than any embarrassment I might feel from people judging me because I’ve asked to have my picture taken.
I asked a friend recently if she wanted me to take her picture. She replied yes, and told me that she too wanted to stop being shy in front of the camera. She then told me about how friends of hers had passed away and there weren’t any pictures of her with them for her to cherish. That made my love for photographs intensify immensely. They are so sentimentally powerful.
I have always taken a million photo’s of Oliver, and I will continue to until he tells me not to. Hopefully one day, he too, asks me to take a photo of him. Your kids are only small once. I want to show Oliver all the adventures he has been on one day. I want him to look back on his childhood and know that he has had a good one, even if he can’t remember it. I want to remember these days for as long as I live and unfortunately the human brain isn’t wired like that for most people.
It’s a memory on paper. Life is just too short to be shy (says the painfully quiet shy girl). So, get your picture taken, take a million photos, display them to the world if you want, print them out and keep them forever so that when you’re old, you can show your grand children and great grand children how beautiful and young you once were, and all of the things that you did. Don’t make your life a tale without the pictures.