Right at this moment, I’m sitting here at my desk with a cup of coffee and trying to decide what is more cringe-worthy…
Looking at old pictures I took when I had no clue what I was doing
Or
This book I have from the 2nd grade where I and all of my classmates (all 19 of them) wrote about the loves of our lives and who the cutest boys/girls were at the time.
It’s a toss-up even though Kenny Rogers makes an appearance in one of them.
My oldest asked for a photo shoot the other day, just like the one I did for my uncle in Nashville.
And when I framed it, I started looking at all the photos in that frame… all stacked behind one another in a 16×20 glimpse of the past.
I was so proud of these baseball pics…
Blah colors, zero composition, and you can hardly see her face. What’s not to like?
Or this one. There’s enough grain in this photo to feed a third-world country.
At least whatever is wrong with this photo, I ignored on purpose because I just plain like it and Maggie was cooperative.
Oh – and here we go. Ah yes, the pride and joy of my tiny little point & shoot. I thought I had something here. And don’t get me wrong, I will always love this photo but professional, it is not. Even WITH the super-cool text at the bottom.
Look – you can actually tell what color her eyes are in this one! Yay for light!
I wouldn’t be so embarrassed by these if they were truly just snapshots that I took. But I was trying.
Oh well. That’s what practice is for, right? And I still win because I will have all of those too-dark, too-grainy, too-everything photos forever and ever.
And recently, I tried to go backwards and recreate a photo I took more than two years ago…
You may remember seeing this photo of my father-in-law just before he passed away. The other day when we were pulling the irrigation reel, Shelby plopped her brother on this tractor and inspiration struck.
So now I have this one framed… a recreation of that accidental shot that I took when I didn’t know anything about aperture, ISO or white balance.
Whatever might be wrong with those old photos (and even the new ones), I’m so glad I never deleted anything.
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11 comments
Professional or not — baby in a mailbox — priceless!
As a friend once said “life is too short to be afraid of success.” That’s why we keep trying, we keep getting better, we keep evolving.
I just love that you kept the old pictures. I thought they were pretty good, especially the first one of your girl with the guitar and the ‘Maggie’ one. But best of all, you can critique yourself and that is priceless.
~M
Jennifer how lucky are you to have these pictures whether they are technically sound or not. Those last two are priceless!
I agree… sometimes I cringe looking back at my old photos, especially ones where I was totally ignorant of any form of composition. But you know, looking back at them years later regardless of how they look is the best part. It also gives you the strength to improve
Snapshots are alot like life I guess, it’s the moments that count, not perfection.
None of those photos have anything wrong with them because they have the ones you love in them, and as you said you can look back at them forever and ever to remember the memories
Sometimes I think the best photos are the one’s you don’t plan on….they are the spur of the moment photos!
I think framing the picture of your father-in-law with the picture of the baby would be such a neat thing to have together. Even if you don’t think they are the greatest quality. That picture of your fil is absolutely priceless. And I’m sure one day when he’s older, you son will want both the one of his grandfather and him on the same tractor.
I love the black and white one and the baby in the mailbox. I also think it would be really cool to frame the two tractor photos together. What a neat way to remember your father in law.
I love these pics, they are so natural and each one catches the child so happy and in normal everyday life. Great pics.
What’s not to like, the last two are my favorites and I love the baby in the mailbox.