Picture (not) Perfect

wordswithmrsh - 6 Jan 17

I have just been scrolling through the pictures we have taken over the last few weeks. Then, as I do every month, I have selected a random number of them and ordered the photos. Yes, I am aware it is 2017 and everyone has a cloud to keep their photos floating about on. I mean, who actually prints pictures these days? Me, that’s who. Maybe it’s out dated but in a few years time, I feel very confident, printed pictures will back and me and my endless boxes of photos will be Retro rather than just stuck in a time warp.

However, the point I am trying to get to is not one about the best way to store photos and is all about what is in them. Me, the husband, our kids, our families. No, we are not looking at the camera and smiling in every picture, in fact that rarely happens. Everything is not in perfect focus and filters have not been applied. However, it is all real; messy, chaotic, blurry but us and 100% real and I think that’s important.

I have nothing against a crop, edit and filter to create some beautiful photos (and why does black and white seem to make everything look so much better)?  BUT not for every photo, I want my kids to look at our photos and remember the moment how it was when it happened. I love to look at old photos and remember my mum and her variety of perms through the years, my dad and his flared jeans, the garden we used to charge up and down during never-ending summers, the one where we were all posed to say cheese when something distracted us and we are all looking completely the wrong way for the ‘click’.

It is very apparent to me that no technology has advanced so far that cameras can perform actual real life magic either. No edit and filter can completely change your appearance, the direction everyone is looking, the faces everyone is pulling. Although the removal of red-eye is very handy. So while we sometimes get caught up in taking pictures and telling our kids to smile, we can miss out on them just enjoying the moment and really smiling –  which is the point isn’t it when we are taking photos with our kids? Taking pictures is to capture moments and have a visual reminder for your memories…

I’m a bit sad there is no more ‘one shot’ photography. Hoping the one photo you took of you and all your mates together is a good one. The absolute euphoria, having spent £8 at Boots and waited 24 hours, when you realise it’s a winner – or maybe that was just me. I don’t want to edit out everything – and that includes me.

Rewind 12 months and I was avoiding the camera as I was looking heavily pregnant (even though I was meant to be in the mid pregnancy ‘glowing’ phase). Then, when we went to hospital for baby to arrive, I realised I would not be pregnant again and I wanted a picture of me. Because even though it felt at the time that I would never be able to forget the detail of the one remaining jumper that fitted my huge bump and just how big I was, until I saw that photo of me recently, I actually had.

When our kids look back on our pictures (which they will be forced to do as I have millions), they are not going to care if my stomach looked flat or about the size of the bags under my eyes (even in the photos of my festival days I didn’t look as knackered as I do now)…. But they will see I was there with them. We’ll all be able to see us grow and change as a family, remember the places we’ve been, the homes we’ve lived in, the haircuts…. and there will be the odd black and white portrait for good measure!

So don’t be afraid to get in front of the camera a bit more this year… you might just get that kick ass Hollywood shot but better than that you’ll have some fab pictures of special times and people to enjoy.

wordswithmrsh

Mum of fabulous children, wife to one very patient husband. My blogs are about anything that has popped into my head as it occurs to me. I have aspirations to write more, that are slowly turning into reality. A lover of the simple things in life - good friends, good food, good wine and of course family.

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