Copper Hoop: A Picture is Worth...

From as early as I can recall, I always had a camera in my hand. I was six, seven, eight? Not really sure... I never thought much of it, I just had a camera, and some film. I was assigned the duty of "family historian," early on - without it ever being actually put into words - I took pictures of my family and our outings. I remember having a funny shaped camera, looked a bit long, like 1/2 a shoe box! Or something like it. My parents would drive up to the tiny little "huts" in the middle of the parking lots near the grocery store, we'd leave our film in an envelope and hope for the best. Days later, drive back to the little hut again, and , viola', there were our family photos.
There were shots of our dogs, who looked more like little dots and specks in a big grassy, green yard. I had lots of shot of my dogs' faces, a few paws, even my own feet when I was bored! There was that 8th Wonder of the World series I took when our parents drove us all over the East Coast in search of the "biggest rock." And then there were those great shots of a deer we saw at the park, or a rabbit, only, you sort of had to look REAL close to find them.
As a mom, and wife, I now ADORE taking photos of my family even more so. My three year old could keep me busy ALL day. Well, her, my love of my newest camera and my Iphone camera and could keep me busy all day :)
Technology has done a lot. I don't have to go to those tiny, little huts any more and drop off funny looking rolls of film. Instead, I can print them in my house! That idea would have never occurred to me at six or seven years of age. Even my brother developed his own film in make-shift dark rooms - he took some amazing photos years ago. But that was as close as I would have ever imagined to printing photos in my own home!

I still own some of those photos I took as a child - I love to look at them and giggle. They're kept in a shoe box, oddly enough, for safe keeping.

Living in the past isn't something I do, nor do I encourage, but photos tend to force us to look back. And, for as much as I live for the "now" and strive to always be "present," my love for photos does tend to take me down memory lane from time to time.

I've learned so many things from my photos and my love of photography. But mostly, I've learned to appreciate that was then, and this is now.

Below is a collection of my own photos (current day) and others that I've stumbled across...

My daughter, the tree-hugger