This is why I will never stop shooting

Thanks for all your kind words, folks.

Another great analogy is the medieval bridge of Mostar, in Bosnia. IIRC it was blown to bits in the Balkan war and after the war nearly all rubble was dredged from the river and people were asked to submit as many pictures of the bridge that they had, so it could be reconstructed.

That bridge was a mandatory shot for any tourist visiting Yugoslavia and there were so many shots that people were bored seeing them, until they were needed to reconstruct that 750 year old bridge.

ssmc, your pictures will someday mean something to someone in Sheridan, Wyoming!
 
buzzardkid said:
If there's anything I have learned from this, it's to shoot whatever you like even if it seems trivial at the time!
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Thanks for a thoughtful post that reminds us to keep on keeping on even when there may be dissenting opinions from others.
 
My Dad never much liked having his photo taken so I usually had to catch him off guard. After his heart attack and by-pass I took many more photos of him and my Mom. Some of these images aren't so good but since he passed away and two years later my Mom passed away I cherish each and every one of them.

This is the last photo of them before they both started having health issues. I still haven't figured out how I managed to get him to let me take the photo..

md.jpg
 
Just occasionally someone starts a thread on here that really makes it worth spending the time to read it and really brings home that photography is about the pictures and not the gear used to take them.

This is one of those threads - a great story and an important lesson
 
My own father is 84 and the most recent picture I have of him (around his 83rd birthday and my 60th) is in a hospital bed, though he's much better now and has managed to take his customary holidays in Madeira. I see him seldom, as we live 1000 miles apart, but I know that one day I will take my last picture of him. I may already have taken it...

But on a much less heart-tugging level, I find that I take more and more pictures of those small things that lift the heart: things that are all too easy to forget otherwise. The most recent (and most trivial) was at a motorway rest stop after delivering our daughter back to Brittany for university. It sounds ridiculous, but the toilets signs were amusing! The Gents' was an insouciant young man, leaning against a wall; the Ladies' had her nose in the air, very snooty; and even the disabled wheelchair was racing, whether to get there or to get away, I don't know. When I get around to processing the raw files, maybe I'll post them.

Cheers,

R.
 
That post is so touching.
I bring at least two cameras with me, everyday, one film camera and one digital, for the reason that you explain. I have also a digital voice recorder with me, and often I register the voice of the person I love, when they are talking about something I wish to remember.
Some time ago, I found a recording with the voice of my uncle, that spoke about something that is very important for me. He was telling me about how he printed the photos in the darkroom whith his father.
Has been so beautiful to have a last speech from him about his memories.
He passed away more than 10 years ago.
Now I am scanning a lot of photos taken by him about the youthness of my granmother, my father and the places of his youthness, Sorrento in 1951.
Is so sweet and so important for me, and for my father also.
Thaking photos regullarly is like having a wayback machine.
I EVER will bring a camera with me!
 
It is hard for me to photograph aging members of my life. Friends, family, pets. I like to remember them the way I knew them as I was growing up. So, I remind my self that my pictures today will serve this purpose for my kids someday. They will see us, their friends, our pets the way they 'like' to remember.

(yes I am a horrible photojournalist. e.i. I can not raise a camera in a hospital, but I am working at it)
 
dnk512 said:
It is hard for me to photograph aging members of my life. Friends, family, pets. I like to remember them the way I knew them as I was growing up. So, I remind my self that my pictures today will serve this purpose for my kids someday. They will see us, their friends, our pets the way they 'like' to remember.

(yes I am a horrible photojournalist. e.i. I can not raise a camera in a hospital, but I am working at it)
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I've always liked it that obituaries often featured pictures of the deceased taken in their prime. I used a photo of my Dad taken when he was in the Navy for his obit.

It may be a cliche, but that is the magic of photos - an instant captured from time.

Randy
 
Photos of loved ones who have passed away are precious. Just this weekend, I took photos of my friend's aging mother. These photos will become important to him and his children in the future.
 
FrankS said:
Photos of loved ones who have passed away are precious. Just this weekend, I took photos of my friend's aging mother. These photos will become important to him and his children in the future.
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Not just loved ones, and not just passed away. I wish I had more pictures of my university friends 30 years ago, when we were at university. I've just one of Helen (Biology), a handful of Barbara (Law -- she was a gorgeous handful), one of Gorilla (Law), one of Charles (Theology)... These were people I saw all the time.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Great thread.
Inspiring and I agree that one should stand back and just take photos of the more mundane things sometimes....
 
This is really an inspiring thread - I'm touched beyond words.

It serves to remind me to not forget why I photograph in the first place, to capture memories, especially of our loved ones.

GAS aside, I will endeavor to take as many pictures of my family as possible.
 
A very thoughtful thread.

A very thoughtful thread.

I think, subconsciously, this is related to my penchant for photographing my wife.
 
Roger Hicks said:
we photograph the wrong things.

Wouldn't you LOVE to see a picture of your parents' house or the interior of your bedroom when you were young? Of your lecture halls at university? Of the room (or even the outside of the building) where you lost your virginity?
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I have photos of all of these things. And more. And it is cool; some places still look exactly the same decades later, some have been erased, others, somewhere inbetween.

But I probably don't have enough photos of my parents. Something to work on.

Marty
 
Thanks for this thread Johan, I hope your dad continues to recover to good health. It's an important reminder that often the subjects that matter the most are right under our noses - and we regret it if we don't keep taking pictures.

Roger, you are so right in your comments. I have too few pictures of the things that matter.

Both my parents (and also my wife's) passed away a few years ago. All were camera-shy, so we treasure what we have. My wife's brother also died in a tragic accident at age 60 just a year afterwards, and his family were very grateful I had taken happy portraits of him with his children just a few months earlier. You never know when a loved one's (or your) time is up. People are very appreciative when you can help them out.
 
Freakscene said:
I have photos of all of these things. And more. And it is cool; some places still look exactly the same decades later, some have been erased, others, somewhere in between.
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Dear Marty,

Ah, you're a wiser man than I. And you were FAR wiser when you were younger. But I'm learning...

Cheers,

R.
 
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