One of my ongoing projects is curating my photography output to a manageable size (I currently have over 15,000 images in my LIghtroom library). I’m finding that I have to wait a while after I leave a place to cull the photos I took there. An image can look great at first, but the longer I live with it, the more I can see the composition isn’t quite right, or it’s too generic, or it simply doesn’t hold its own against other images of the same place.
I suppose the same can be said about memories. Facebook has a feature that brings up what I posted (or others tagged me in) for the day, a year ago, two years ago, four, seven, and so on. Sometimes i look at an old post it displays and wonder what the heck that was about. And other times, I smile with happiness because the image brings back a wonderful memory.
Not every photo, or every memory, is a public keeper. Some images are private, capturing a unique moment in a specific place for me alone. Any one else looking at the image would think it’s OK but to me it represents so much more. It might be how I felt standing there, or the effort it took to get there, or who I was with at the time, or something that took me by surprise.
When I was young, I rushed through life, not remembering the details, eager and anxious to get to the next place, the next big thing, the next adventure. Now I’m older, and I’m slowing down, and that’s not a bad thing. I can take the time to look back at where I’ve been, and appreciate the life behind me as well as the life ahead of me.
Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
Dr. Seuss
Annie,
You remind me of me and that’s a good thing! Your last post; I could almost have written word for word. It’s eerie but in a nice way. I have been following your blog for several months (the first and only blog I have ever followed) and I am enjoying it very much. BTW, I will be picking up my Alto F1743 on May 2nd of next year.
Your quotes are great and I have added several to my collection. I have accumulated 44 pages over the years if you ever start to run dry. I think you have probably already used this one:
WE SHALL NOT CEASE FROM EXPLORATION, AND THE END OF ALL OUR
EXPLORING WILL BE TO ARRIVE WHERE WE STARTED AND TO KNOW THAT PLACE
FOR THE FIRST TIME. -T.S. ELIOT
A few examples of similitude from just your last post:
I completed my Lightroom online class a few months ago, now it’s time to tackle 40 years of slides and digital files.
BY THE MILE IT’S A TRIAL; BY THE YARD IT’S HARD; BUT BY THE INCH IT’S A CINCH!
You are so right! I almost never look at my shots right away but let them percolate. This does help the editing process.
I love your eye. Almost never would I have cropped or edited! Maybe we are both equally bad photographers. 🙂
The young always rush through life. The older, I’m 61 now, understand what it means to gaze and soak in the view and a meal. However, at times it is difficult to put down the camera and the fork.
Keep up the good works.
One of your biggest fans,
Bill
Thanks for the comments, Bill! I wish you luck with Lightroom, it’s a challenge and now that they don’t do anything but Cloud-based, I may be moving off it to something else this winter, we’ll see… I love that quotation, someday I might get to the place where it fits 🙂
As a Scot who has lived many years in Perthshire the last image tugged at my curiosity, “Where is that?”…. my appreciation, “What a great perspective”….and my nostalgia for home. Great picture, Annie
Thanks, Fiona! It was somewhere on a little road where I got lost trying to get to Perth and my hotel for the night. I ended up an a few unpaved roads that day!
All those photos are wonderful. I especially love the one at the top of the page. Hope you are somewhere dry.
Thanks for the comment, Jamie! I am just getting the rain from Flo’s remainders here in Virginia. Hoping NC comes through it with as little damage as possible.
Thank you