So. We Need to Talk.

What a cheery intro line for a Friday, huh? :)

First of all, happy Friday, happy long weekend to those of you who get the fourth off, and happy brand new month! It's a lot for one little day to hold, isn't it?

So today I will thank you in advance for being my good little listeners, because I just have to talk this one through out loud!

First up...the disclaimers.

I know that I am over the top when it comes to pictures. It's part of my charm and why you love me, right? I could do a whole series of posts {but I'll spare you} on WHY I am so over the top when it comes to pictures, and I feel my reasons are quite valid.

I also know that there's no right way to do pictures. Everyone has a system that works for them and even though {breathe, breathe, breathe} it may not match my system, it's still {breathe, breathe, breathe} a good one.

So just know that I know these things, okay?

Yesterday I was reading an email my dear Lynne Ford had written about her recent trip to Israel. She said she took over 900 pictures on that trip, and I stood to applaud. {900 is like a Monday for me, but for her to do 900 on a trip is HUGE and I am crazy proud of her for it. WELL DONE, LYNNE!!!}

She said the guide urged people, when they happened upon a new sight to behold, to not take a picture, but to stop and absorb first and then to take a picture.

And that was when I felt my heart constrict and my breath stop entirely. These words: not take a picture. What does that mean?

I kept reading and she said they were told they could not take a picture for the first 15 minutes of their boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. That's when my hand literally {and do not think I'm kidding} went straight to my throat and I gasped for air that would not come.

Yeah, it's possible I have a picture problem.

But fifteen minutes of being forbidden to photograph? I can go fifteen minutes without taking a picture. {No, really! I can!!} But if you tell me I can't, well I might break out in hives.

So I understand, truly, the point of not just living life peering through a camera lens, but actually taking time to stop and absorb. I get it. I do. And I'm a memory maker and writer, so I want full absorption.

But I'm backwards, apparently, and I didn't even know it. I have to take the picture first, so I know it's captured, safe on the card, and that task is out of the way...and then I can stop and absorb. I want time to spend making the memory without worrying that at the end I have to rush back and take all the pictures.

Most of the pictures I take are of first sights. The moment something comes into view, I capture it, and then I sit and savor it. And when I look at my pictures, I know that what I'm seeing is that first moment all over again. And I love that.

Even though I take pictures of everything, I am not always taking pictures. {No! Really!} I do my share of living the moment. And when the moment is SO huge, I make sure I've arranged for someone else to capture it for me, so I can live fully in the moment.


For example, my best friend took this in 2010, the very moment I saw the ocean for the first time.

I soaked in {not literally} everything about those first views, while she snapped picture after picture.

And sometimes I'm that person. The designated memory-grabber. When my friend Kari's son was a senior, she "kept me on retainer" to photograph some of his senior events, including his graduation and open house, so she could be free to be a mom and not have to mess with taking any pictures. I thought it was brilliant. I was honored that she asked and happy to serve as her camera lens so she could make her memories. I've hidden in corners at births, parties, open houses, and more, just grabbing candid moments of memories in the making.

I write about our life in the moment when I blog and journal about it. But my best life-writing comes months later, when I've marinated and observed more of the big picture. And in those moments, when I go to write, I write with my journal open on one side and my photos open on the other side. Those two tools take me back to the moment itself and I relive it as vividly as I lived it to begin with.

So that's how I photograph. Pictures first, then full absorbing. How do you do it? Do you take pictures at all? Do you live first and photograph later? Photograph first and live later? Do both at once? Hire it done?

And thanks for letting me talk through this and get it off my chest. I feel MUCH better now. And hopefully you still love me. And my camera. Because we are sometimes one and the same.