Keli Gwyn here with a confession. I like to snap pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.
I remember my ninth birthday present well. My parents had said that I had to be nine before I could hope to get a camera. My dream came true that summer, and I became the proud owner of a Kodak Instamatic.
I remember my ninth birthday present well. My parents had said that I had to be nine before I could hope to get a camera. My dream came true that summer, and I became the proud owner of a Kodak Instamatic.
I loved that boxy little camera with its four-use flashbulbs that made a delightful pop when used. Because film developing cost a lot, I didn't get a new roll of film very often and was choosy about the pictures I took. I only have a couple hundred photographs taken during that era.
Fast forward twenty-two years. I became a mother, and I went snap happy. I'd been a point and shoot gal until then, but I learned how to use my husband's fancy Olympus camera with all its dials and settings. One must get the very best shot of one's baby, after all.
Years passed, and I kept right on taking pictures. More and more pictures. I would come home from vacation with ten or more film canisters ready to be developed. Since I was so eager to relive our experiences and since it cost little more to get duplicate prints, I ended up with boxes and boxes of prints. (The picture only shows about a third of the photos.)
Although I was a late adopter, I entered the digital age a number of years ago. Like many, I take oodles of pictures these days. It's so easy to do. I've had my new laptop less than a year, and I've already got over 1,100 photos stored on it. My previous laptop is home to over 10,000.
As I've been dealing with my plethora of pictures, I came across a stack of cartes de visite. They're those small, old-fashioned, cardboard-mounted photographs that were popular in the 1860s and 1870s. I was delighted when I found a huge basket of them in a local antique store a few years back. The images serve as inspiration for my characters.
What struck me, due to my purging pictures project, was how special these photographs must have been to the people who posed for them. It's likely that for many of them, this was one of but a few pictures they ever had taken. I'm sure they treasured them and that they would have been one of the first items grabbed in case of a fire.
I love my photos, too, but I'm learning the value of having fewer of them. When I upload images to my computer these days, I try to save only the best and delete the rest. I want those I keep to be the best representations of my experiences. When I get mired down during the decision making, I pull out those antique photos and remember that less can be more.
Questions for You
Do you have more photos than you know what to do with?
How do you choose which pictures to keep and which to part with?
Do you have any special photos from your ancestors?
Do you have more photos than you know what to do with?
How do you choose which pictures to keep and which to part with?
Do you have any special photos from your ancestors?
Posts
