Go ahead, take the picture!

People sometimes ask me when I developed a love of photography, or when I started taking pictures.  I can't tell you. Not because I don't want to, but because I don't know, honestly.  I've always love pictures, taking them and looking at them. My first very vivid memories are of my Dad using his little box camera, and how he would stand and look down into the viewfinder. I loved that "pose".  And I loved what it captured. And I can't even tell you how it made me feel when he actually let ME do it. He would stand behind me and help me hold it steady, and I got to press the shutter down. I didn't know all the workings of the camera, and how or why it did the things it did, it didn't matter. I only knew that something great would come out of it. And the wait for the film to be sent off, developed and sent back to us was always torturous.  To this day, pressing down that shutter still gives me butterflies and excitement. 

I read a blog from a mom once who explained why she let her kids take her pictures with her cell phone. They thought it was fun, but she also realized that when they looked at her in those pictures they didn't see her need to lose 20lbs, or her wrinkles or her gray hairs. When they took those pictures, and looked at them later-all they would see is their Mom. A mom who loved them, fed them, clothed them and was there for them.  When you take a picture, whether it be in a professional setting or casual, you are making an imprint of that very moment-seconds that you can never get back, breaths that will never be breathed exactly the same again.  Sometimes the picture you take, may be the last one of that person or place that's ever taken. People leave us when we least expect it, and our hearts are never ready to accept what our minds know. Our family recently experienced a great loss, and because my daughter loves to take pictures as much as me, we had many pictures of her loved one who passed. Pictures that will help get us through some very rough days ahead pictures we can show to others to remind them of the love we had for this person,  how funny and silly they could be, and that they are terribly missed.   Pictures help our heart remember the moment when time tries to erase it.  Take pictures, and lots of them. I promise you won't regret it.