Pictures

Capturing a moment in a picture has become so easy and accessible.  It takes seconds to grab your phone, snap a few pictures and capture a moment forever.  Add in a few more seconds and your picture can be shared with hundreds of your closest friends and family.  Film cameras seem like something from the ancient past.  You’d selectively take your pictures, not wanting to have too many of the same shot because you “only” had 12 pictures on the roll.  You had no idea if everyone was smiling or not or if your finger was over the lens.  You took the shot and hoped for the best.  I remember going with my mom to drop off the rolls film at the tiny little photo hut in the middle of a random parking lot on Robertson.  We’d return a couple days later, eagerly anticipating the photos that were waiting for us in the envelope.  If you wanted to share the pictures with your friends and family, you looked at the negatives, selected the number and then went back to the photo hut to have copies made.  When describing this to my kids, they can’t even imagine what it would be like not to be able to instantly view your pictures.

Technology is amazing.  When we took picture with film cameras we used them to capture only special events, holidays and vacations.  Now, we use pictures to capture any moment, meal or image that moves us.  Earlier this week as I was driving home I saw the most amazing sunset.  The sun was setting behind a mountain, which gave the mountain a purple hue.  The yellow and orange made it look as it the top of the mountain was on fire, and for some strange reason reminded me of a scene from Finding Nemo.  The colors across the sky were amazing and my first thought was, I have to take a picture.  I knew I should pull over to get the perfect shot, but then worried that it would delay me in picking up the kids.  Thankfully the next light turned red and I was able to quickly snap a picture (above).  When I looked at the picture later though I realized that it didn’t even do justice to the sunset itself.  Sure you could get an idea of the spectrum of colors, but the real thing was so much more beautiful.  Maybe it’s only me because I’m not a professional photographer, but rarely do my pictures capture the full beauty of the moment.  It got me thinking our first instinct now is to grab our phone and start snapping pictures, but what are we missing in the process?  Are we taking the time to really look at the sunset, appreciate the colors and admire the beauty for what it is?  Over the next week, there will be many opportunities to take pictures and document the holidays in great detail.  Fortunately you can take pictures to your heart’s content and don’t have to wonder if the film is going to turn out or not but keep in mind, the picture will rarely capture the full beauty of the moment.

Heart-FULLy Yours,    

Kacey