We got another of Maggie’s photo books in the mail recently and on Saturday morning, while Audrey took her nap, Barry and I sat with her and thumbed through the pages. Since I’m roughly a year behind it was the book that documented her 2nd birthday to just before her 3rd. Maggie has an impeccable memory and many of the pictures were met with great giggles and elaboration. She especially loved hearing Barry and I tell additional details about things that we noticed and remembered. The books that I make for my girls (currently working on Audrey’s and Maggie’s latest) are huge and some would probably think over the top. And they might just be…
My mom did a remarkable job with documenting my childhood and my brothers and I each have an album from each year, they have now been consolidated and transferred out of those old albums, but I’ve always loved looking at them, even as a child. I even found joy looking at my brothers’ books. To think what an effort my mom must of made to make sure that each of us had copies of group shots and family outings, impresses me and inspires me to keep plowing through my books.
I sometimes daydream about the idea of ‘becoming’ a lifestyle photographer. I’d love to go into people’s homes and become a fly on the wall and take pictures of their lives….the day to day and nitty gritty of it all. Or just take pictures of a family spending time together – not the posed shots where every body is wearing the same color and holding their guts in, but a family working together in the garden, playing a board game, etc. Capturing the moments that often get lost.
And maybe someday I’ll pursue that avenue of creativity and I really think I’d be doing some families a favor. I don’t mean to sound all high-and-mighty, but I get so sad when I see friends/random people only take horrible, blurry photos of their children with their phones. Of course not everybody wants to learn how to used a big camera, but there are a fair amount of cameras out there that are small and capable of taking pictures of higher quality than any cell phone to date. Since getting my own iPhone this year, I’ve noticed that I tend to use it way more than my ‘big’ camera, and I’m trying to make a point to again pick up my ‘big camera’ to document some things.
After looking though the photo books, I’m critical of my own photography, but Maggie just recognizes a book full of faces and places she loves.
