Grace and Hannah

 

Sometimes I get so caught up in the technical quality of photography that I forget that one of the real values of photography is the ability to catch a moment. Digital photography has changed the world in this area. Nearly everyone has a camera available almost constantly. This image came out of our Canon Elph Point-and-Shoot at a recent family dinner. It's my daughter, Hannah (Right) playing around with her cousin Grace. It was a priceless moment that we were able to capture and will have forever!
I'm certainly not implying that quality doesn't matter--it does, even this situation would have been more artistic and eye-catching with a different angle, a better camera, or a shorter depth of field--but I just wanted to remind everyone (mostly myself) about the value of photography in general--the value of being able to freeze a moment in your memory. How much value will this image have in the future? Instead of fading into obscurity, will we think of this very image when these two hug each other at Grace's graduation, or when they laugh together at Hannah's wedding? I don't know. But I know that Hannah will never be two again, and they'll grow out of the thrill of hanging upside-down just to do it. Maybe my love of photography comes from my love of life and the constant need to grab a hold of a piece of it to keep for those moments when life isn't quite so magical or simple.