Too Many Images...AAAARMY

I gotta tell you, I had a completely different Blog Post ready to roll, but then I got weepy - bwahaaha it happens - It's January of 2023 (how did that happen?). Happy New Year by the way!

In September of this year may oldest daughter will be twentyfour... I have to pause at that because I can never quite fathom that I am old enough to have adult children. I know! Teenage bride? Not even, I am just old... hmmm anyway. My weepiness was brought on by two items. Firstly, my soon to be twenty-four year old daughter is leaving at the end of this month of January. Shipping off to Basic Training in the AAAAArmy.

I thought I was fine with this. Like that day I had to take my youngest son to his first day of kindergarten. I was all yippee-skippee that I could now launch myself full time into my photography and then I had to hand him over to the teacher. The second I walked through the classroom door, I was choking back tears - I am such a baby.

So, my daughter, heading off to the Army. I can rationalize it and I know it will be a great step for her, etc, etc... but in the end it doesn't work. I am going to miss her. She has been my "partner in crime", she facilitates all my crazy ideas (if you read this blog, you know). Sheesh I even raised my photography prices so I could pay her a living wage.

The second chink in my armor was finding an old jump drive circa 2002 - 2006 ish. I was texting her screenshot after screen shot and we were laughing our heads off. It's not new, the whole laughing our heads off thing. We are gigglers, smiley facers, makes for a good photographer to have those qualities. If you see us serious, the earth might be coming to an end.

Since this IS a photography blog - I should "stay on target". The Jump drives... It is one in a stash of many. I try to keep things organized but those little suckers get pushed aside - I do have those in little baggies (not THAT kind of baggy) with a slip of paper that has the dates and possibly the subject matter. This stash is apart from the big hard drives with "work" photo files - in redundancy. Occasionally, I go into panic mode thinking all those moments are solely in digits. The little kids are all in digits, the big kids have the first few years printed hahaha.

You have them too though - how many images are on your phone? Your laptop? Thousands of snibits of our lives. I love printed albums, I love looking at the old snaps on the phone. It all leaves me quite speechless. Unheard of, right? me? speechless!? I suppose those photos have stolen my thousand words.

Suffice it to say, this part of parenting sucks, I would rather change diapers (no emotional involvement there). I have been fortunate though. My adult kids are pretty close in. My son is in Charlotte and Felipa has been either here or Greensboro. I have also been able to work with my daughter in a professional capacity and I have put her in front of the camera countless times. So I have the pictures - the exact reason I photograph. To capture, apprehend, seize, arrest, detain... a moment. However, despite all my efforts to stop time... it keeps going. I often feel I am grasping and grasping but the butterflies all fly away. Kids are supposed to... they are supposed to fly, make their own lives and adventures. We, the oldsters, cherish those images and know we had glorious, beautiful moments and time was stopped for a fraction of a second. Dang it, I am bawling already.

Hug your peeps (ohh I think I am repeating a previous blog there - I guess it's important to repeat - hug your peeps) take pictures for the heck of it, do portrait sessions just for fun and so you can be in the pictures too.

I'll try not to cry when I drop off Felipa to ship out, but I wouldn't take the bet that I will leave without the bawly face.

HASH TAG ARMY

#army #kids #fly #photography #stoptime #growingup #leavingthenest