I'm Not a Picture Taker

I like blog posts with pictures and I've come to really admire the people who post frequently with pictures.  Often they are simple things like how to bake brownies or make a certain craft project. It's many times harder to make brownies when you have to take a picture of each and every step and ingredient or to picture each step in a sewing project.  So, I've come to appreciate their dedication and effort to provide that level of interest in their blog.

I like to have pictures of my family, but I've never been much of a picture taker.  I used to be and if you look in my poorly organized photo albums you will see many, many pictures of son #1, slightly less of son #2 and many fewer of son #3.  What you won't see are many pictures of me during those years because I was always the one behind the camera.  But that's not why I don't care to take pictures these days and consequently don't post many pictures.  I began to feel that while I was watching through the viewfinder of a camera I couldn't participate in what was happening.  I was always looking for a good picture or trying to document an event on film and what I wanted to be doing was participating in the event.  I wanted to SEE my children graduate not just take a picture of it.  I want to MAKE the brownies, not take a picture of making the brownies.  I want to be present in the activity rather than document the activity.

I still take pictures and indeed have pictures of graduations and the like, but I would rather just be there and then buy (for what seems like an outrageous price) the professional photographer's picture of my son getting his diploma or getting married or participating in the (fill in the blank) team.  I've come to realize that I'm not paying just for a picture, I'm paying for the luxury of participating in the event and still being able to have the picture to commemorate it....and that is priceless.