Life is a series of snapshots.
Updated: Dec 16, 2020
My dad passed away in May, and being the Photographer/Art Director in the family I was asked to find the appropriate family photos for the obituary, and the photo collage that we displayed in the funeral home. Usually when I look through photos, it gives me a sense of calm. My heart rate drops and any stress that I'm experiencing takes a back seat to photography. That's the effect that photography has on me. But searching through family photos was anything but that. It was a series of mixed emotions. It brought back wonderful memories of my childhood and at the same time reminded me of how much I already missed my dad. Some photos were blurry and poorly composed, but it didn't matter, because they all had a wonderful story behind them.
Going through the process reminded me of how important snapshots can be. Even for a photographer, because life isn't a series of fine art photographs. It's a collection of snapshots. It's not always pretty. It's not always well composed, and can sometimes feel out of focus.
My dad was a hardworking and honest man. He always put his family first and followed his hard work, with more hard work. I spent a lot of quality time with him while I was growing up. He was the guy I went to football games with. He was the guy that would laugh with me at Jim Carrey movies. He was the guy that waited in line with me for 2 hours to meet Stan Lee at a comic book convention. We even worked together during the summer breaks of my college years. My dad was also right there at the beginning of my photographic journey. It was his 35mm Canon that I used during my high school photo class. He was always the first to congratulate me when my work was exhibited during a show or an award was won. My dad was never one to brag about himself and neither was I, but that was ok, because we bragged about each other. He would often tell is coworkers about all my creative accomplishments, and I would tell my friends about him, and his job, and all the things we did together.
It doesn't matter how artistic you are. If you have an "eye" for photography or a fancy camera. If there is a memory happening in front of you, capture it however you can. Your future self will thank you. We'll miss him every day for the rest of our lives, but thanks to photography we'll never forget him.
