Picture Perfect

One of our nieces just shared this article on Facebook, and it describes exactly the predicament that I've been facing. I've always loved taking pictures and, since Kai's birth, I made this hobby into almost a part-time job by putting in as much attention, time and energy. Like those who feel weird without their phones, I don't feel right if I don't have my camera with me (though one of our photographer friends told me I could ditch the camera and just use the iPhone, I still only use the iPhone camera as backup). Over the last three years, I must have taken tens of thousands of pictures of Kai, Kai and Bill, Kai with other people, Wei, Wei and Bill, and Wei with other people. Among those, however, there are only about a dozen pictures of me and me with the kids. I told Bill once, "What if I died and they were looking at all these pictures... would they think mommy was not in their lives?" Bill comforted me, "What they'll see is how their mommy saw them... through the lens of her camera." I thought that was almost poetic.

In thinking about my interest in photography, I made a interesting discovery: the men in every one of the serious relationships I've been in loved (and were good at) taking pictures. Bill, too, when we were dating. We each had our own cameras when we travelled, so there wasn't a "shortage" of pictures of us, individually and together. Many factors in the "married with kids" life (busier lives, fatique, stress, etc) kind of made it so that I'm the sole photographer of the family, and I got into the habit comfort of staying behind the camera.

I gotta remember to put myself in the picture(s)!!

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy