New Inspiration For Old Photos
I was a child born in Australia in the 1970s.
My parents, like most of that era, dutifully photographed all the important stages of my young life.
Congratulations to them, because with three older siblings, they had already done this a lot.
There is a stash of photo albums documenting all the "firsts" of our lives.
In Mum's arms outside the respective hospital of birth, first steps, first birthday, first day of school, first Communion, first bike, first major sporting event won, and on..
and on.
You get the picture.
As a child I loved looking over these albums and would get them out periodically to pour over them.
Typically there were always stories to go along with the pictures, so having a running commentary from Mum or Dad made it all the more special.
My parents recently moved, so the various albums of our family history were brought out.
Once again I perused over the old pictures of my youth.
After over thirty-five years, the albums, and more importantly the photos, unfortunately are not in the best shape.
Time has done considerable damage.
Scanning these old pictures is a new project now assigned to me; make them safe! They are too precious to lose.
I found myself studying my old photos with a new purpose.
When you have a child of your own, your own childhood takes on new specialness.
I studied my own baby pictures, looking for the resemblance I am sure exists between my son and I - even though I'm continually reminded he is the spitting image of his Daddy! I have only recently become a mother, but I have taken hundreds, (I'll tell the truth, probably thousands) of pictures of my gorgeous little boy.
Like any new mother will tell you, mine is the most adorable child in the world.
Unlike my parents in the 1970s, thankfully I am not restricted to 24 photos per (costly) film roll.
Thanks to the wonders of the digital camera, I don't need to worry about taking a photo of my boy running in the other direction - he does this, a lot.
I can just delete and re-shoot.
I took 20 photos of him running around the yard today to ensure one of them was good enough! But has the wonder of technology made us unappreciative of the images we have captured? Thousands of photos taken of my beautiful son sat on the computer or on the camera itself.
His lovely smiley face, smiling for no one to see! How could I rob the world of this wonder?! Thank goodness I was given a voucher to spend on a photo book.
I am not the most creative person in the world, but with my son as the subject matter, I unearthed a whole new talent hidden within myself.
It had to be special for his sake.
I spent two months on this project, and I took it very seriously.
I titled the book "his first 12 months" and dedicated a page to every month of his event -filled first year of life.
Oh what fun I had! I scrolled through endless pictures (many repetitive of him doing the same thing from various different angles, from about six different sources).
I found pictures documenting events I had entirely forgotten about.
He was only a year old and I had forgotten how dark his hair was when he was first born! I'm a failure as a mother, thank goodness I have the album to remind me of these things I have shamefully forgotten.
I was extremely happy with the end result.
A lovely, compact, full colour, professional looking, glossy, bound book dedicated to my firstborn.
I have inspired myself to create a new "family" album every year, so I can rest assured all the wonderful memories I am yet to make with my own family will be captured, and handed down, as mine were to me.
However, due to the wonder of technology in 2010, the photo books that will be passed down my family tree will not be dog-eared, faded and spotty with time - and if they are, then I have the album on file and another can be easily printed in its place!
My parents, like most of that era, dutifully photographed all the important stages of my young life.
Congratulations to them, because with three older siblings, they had already done this a lot.
There is a stash of photo albums documenting all the "firsts" of our lives.
In Mum's arms outside the respective hospital of birth, first steps, first birthday, first day of school, first Communion, first bike, first major sporting event won, and on..
and on.
You get the picture.
As a child I loved looking over these albums and would get them out periodically to pour over them.
Typically there were always stories to go along with the pictures, so having a running commentary from Mum or Dad made it all the more special.
My parents recently moved, so the various albums of our family history were brought out.
Once again I perused over the old pictures of my youth.
After over thirty-five years, the albums, and more importantly the photos, unfortunately are not in the best shape.
Time has done considerable damage.
Scanning these old pictures is a new project now assigned to me; make them safe! They are too precious to lose.
I found myself studying my old photos with a new purpose.
When you have a child of your own, your own childhood takes on new specialness.
I studied my own baby pictures, looking for the resemblance I am sure exists between my son and I - even though I'm continually reminded he is the spitting image of his Daddy! I have only recently become a mother, but I have taken hundreds, (I'll tell the truth, probably thousands) of pictures of my gorgeous little boy.
Like any new mother will tell you, mine is the most adorable child in the world.
Unlike my parents in the 1970s, thankfully I am not restricted to 24 photos per (costly) film roll.
Thanks to the wonders of the digital camera, I don't need to worry about taking a photo of my boy running in the other direction - he does this, a lot.
I can just delete and re-shoot.
I took 20 photos of him running around the yard today to ensure one of them was good enough! But has the wonder of technology made us unappreciative of the images we have captured? Thousands of photos taken of my beautiful son sat on the computer or on the camera itself.
His lovely smiley face, smiling for no one to see! How could I rob the world of this wonder?! Thank goodness I was given a voucher to spend on a photo book.
I am not the most creative person in the world, but with my son as the subject matter, I unearthed a whole new talent hidden within myself.
It had to be special for his sake.
I spent two months on this project, and I took it very seriously.
I titled the book "his first 12 months" and dedicated a page to every month of his event -filled first year of life.
Oh what fun I had! I scrolled through endless pictures (many repetitive of him doing the same thing from various different angles, from about six different sources).
I found pictures documenting events I had entirely forgotten about.
He was only a year old and I had forgotten how dark his hair was when he was first born! I'm a failure as a mother, thank goodness I have the album to remind me of these things I have shamefully forgotten.
I was extremely happy with the end result.
A lovely, compact, full colour, professional looking, glossy, bound book dedicated to my firstborn.
I have inspired myself to create a new "family" album every year, so I can rest assured all the wonderful memories I am yet to make with my own family will be captured, and handed down, as mine were to me.
However, due to the wonder of technology in 2010, the photo books that will be passed down my family tree will not be dog-eared, faded and spotty with time - and if they are, then I have the album on file and another can be easily printed in its place!
