Why do we take photos?  I ask rhetorically because everyone takes pictures for different reasons.  Personally, I take pictures for so many reasons.  Some pictures are just to see the beauty of an object.  Some photos are to see if I can get that difficult or cool shot that I imagined trying to get.  And other photos are to remember events.  I even try to scrapbook occasionally as an added way to remember events.

Memories are funny.  I can remember various events and things in my life back to around when I was 3 years old.  Yet, I sometimes forget aspects of events that occurred just a week ago.   I take photos in the hopes that not only will I remember an event or moment, but that I will remember all the nuances of that event including the emotion that went along with it.

My son, however much he loves looking at photos, does not NEED to look at them.  Somehow, at almost 3, his memory is far better than mine is.  Is that because he has less memories to try to remember?  Or is he just one of those people with a great memory?  Only time will tell.  Currently, I can show him places that we’ve only been to one time and he almost always remembers the place and has a comment about what we did or who we were with.  That amazes me, because in some cases, were it not for the photos, I would probably have forgotten the event completely.

I love taking walks with my son and having him help me find things to take pictures of.  These walks are events in themselves.  We don’t always find good things to take pictures of, but every once in a while we will find a great opportunity.  One of those was the pic below.  I was taking pictures from “adult” height, when he told me to “look up” and then pointed.  From his height, the view of the flowers was even more stunning than my view.  It was amazing to me that I had to hear it from him to realize that I was not considering all vantage points when taking pics.  It certainly is a lesson and event that I won’t soon forget!

And that brings me to my next concern.  Am I taking too many pictures and not enjoying the moment?  Sometimes I see it in my son’s eyes (or even my husband’s eyes);  a look like, “put the camera down and just come enjoy this time.”  And most of the time I do, because  I don’t want him to only have pictures of himself playing alone or with daddy and no memories of me playing with him or the two of them.   I want there to be a rich combination of mental images as well as digital images for him to remember all the fun we have together.  He won’t get both types of memories if I fail to put the camera down…and that is something else worth remembering!