proofs

i take pictures of practically everything.  i usually carry my camera around in my purse for easy access.  whenever i don't have it with me, i'm typically wishing i did.

one of the earliest times i had a camera was probably in 7th grade.  i was in science olympiad and my team had won at state and we were going to tucson for nationals.  i'm pretty sure it was a disposable camera that i'd brought with me on the trip, and i still have the prints today.  since it was my first time going to arizona (and first time traveling without my parents), i clicked away at all we saw and did as keepsakes.

since i often borrowed my parents' camera, i received my first one sometime in high school.  it was a clunky grey box with a black plastic lens cover attached.  i remember my parents teaching me how to load and unload film in it.  once mastered on my own, i took pictures of our new house after we'd moved in the summer right before i entered 10th grade.  then i captured junior prom and track meets and sometimes after-school activities.  i snapped more throughout senior year, at my birthday party and the weeks leading up to graduation and of course, at both proms (old and new school) that i ended up attending.

the pictures and albums accrued as technology moved faster.  before long, i was playing with the black & white and sepia features or having my pictures developed onto CDs.  once the switchover to digital occurred, i was no longer limited by the cost of film and number of shots in a roll -- i could take pictures of everything.  and so, i did.

these days i will snap a photo of a pretty sunset or glowing moon or my cats sleeping in odd places or robins nesting in our holly bush.  i'll be outside in the middle of the night with camera in hand, trying to document an eclipse.  i'll stand on our front porch, shivering and fingers shaking, taking a picture of our white, untouched lawn the morning after a snowfall.  and one of my favorite "subjects" to photograph is food.  i'll be camera-ready just seconds after the waiter has set down my plate in front of me at a restaurant, or click a shot of one of my creations at home once i've carefully and properly plated it.

i've often been scolded in the past about taking too many pictures, that i should live in the moment rather than strive to get the perfect picture.  i understand that, but it doesn't stop me.  why?  because i have all of those memories i described above, a collection of snapshots frozen in time.  i've often sat down and been able to reminisce for hours, paging through boxes of albums, watching myself grow up, witnessing family dynamics, seeing my friendships change.  yes, i have memories up here (*tapping my temple), but the pictures are the proof.  and one day when my memory is fractured and faulty, hopefully the photographs can piece together my story.