Photography.
Everyone does it these days, with their phones, their go-pro’s,
the camera Aunt Jean bought them for Christmas.
Why do we feel such a drive to capture, lock-away moments?
Today I was reminded.
I arrived at the church 10min before the service started,
made my way up the steps where I was greeted at the door by 2 people handing out the Memorial Service book.
I couldn’t look at the front of it,
the grief had yet to hit me, and I wasn’t prepared to look upon the face I would never see animated again.
I flipped the booklet over, and there it was.
A family photo I’d taken at a party she’d asked me to attend.
Her face of such joy with her husband, their 4 kids.
Happy, smiling, embracing each other the way close families do.
A moment i’d captured, with a single 250th of a second shutter speed,
one of a hundred images I took that day.
This.
This is why I shoot.
This is why I am a photographer.
So that those tiniest of moments can become most treasured when those we love are gone.
I’m honoured by every friend, every friend-of-a-friend, every client that hires me.
Because I know,
that when your house burns down,
you grab the photos.
To be able to give the gift of love captured, is the most precious gift of all.
x
