Take the photo
The magic of capturing the ‘in-between’ moments on camera
Hello you. How’ve you been this week?
I’ve been replaying happy, glowy memories of our friends’ wedding and precious time with pals from the other side of the world.
And I’m high fiving my past self for the collection of photos I took over the few days.
Smart phones. They have their many downsides, but isn’t the camera with capacity for thousands of photos kind of a miracle?
Do you take many photos?
My partner is my polar opposite on this. He doesn’t really take a single one. When I’ve asked him about this, he is accepting of the fact that every moment is fleeting and he’s there for the ride. Then it’s gone.
That’s not me.
I’m a little bit obsessed with trying to retain happy experiences to preserve them. Almost like I’m trying to catch them in a net and decant them into glass bottles. They’ll go on a special shelf, ready for when I want to re-live them.
I also think this is a big part of why I write. Writing is another way of capturing moments.
Of course, it’s a fallacy that we can re-live a moment again. Looking at a photo, a diary entry or video won’t magically take us back to the reality of the experience.
Even when we replay a memory, it’s not accurate. It’s more of a nebulous feeling. It morphs, blurs and changes every time we do. And often it’s not even the actual moment we’re remembering. It’s the video, or the photo or someone else’s exaggerated anecdote.
There are certain precious moments that I want to study again. Laura Pashby describes them as our ‘little stories’. Can I conjure up how I felt, what we danced to and laughed at? How did it smell and taste? Who else was there?
“Little stories are small, but they shine bright like fireflies, or sparkling water droplets on a winter branch. They concern the people that we love, the details we observe, the small secrets that we keep and the memories that make us glow inwardly…These are stories of moments that we share, moments that we quietly treasure and that somehow make us who we are.”
– Laura Pashby, Little Stories of Your Life
(I’ve ordered Laura’s book (affiliate link) this week from the library and can’t wait to dig into this.)
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not someone who watches the world through a tiny screen of pixels. Well, I very much try not to be. If we’re only capturing moments so we can watch them back later, are we really living them in the first place?
I do, however, love trying to capture the in-between moments.
I’m not too fussed about the wide-smiled posed shots. Yes, we look nice standing in a line with our freshly reapplied lippy. But I love what I have termed ‘sponnies’. (Spontaneous). These are my favourite kind of photos.
The ones where someone has their head thrown back, ugly laughing. Or someone’s genuine split-second reaction to something.
Like my best mate’s hilariously emotive face when she saw me in my wedding dress for the first time.
Or my in laws bent over my nephew’s pushchair and cooing at him in adoration.
The older I get, the more I embrace that I am my mother’s daughter. I used to get sooo annoyed with her for being like this.
“Mum, stop taking photos for God’s sake!! Leave me alone.”
On Christmas Day, still in our PJs with sleep in our eyes and hair askew she’d be snapping away as I put a cheeky morning Quality Street into my gob.
But now, I’m so grateful for all my Mum’s incessant photos. It’s great fun looking back at them, eye rolling and howling with laughter. Even if it’s only the photo itself we remember and not the actual event.
These snaps are our little stories. They are a little bit of magic, a little bit of almost time travel.
I thank my Mum for these irreplaceable gifts. And now I love to pass these gifts onto others too.
“Nothing is ever the same twice because everything is always gone forever and yet each moment has infinite photographic possibilities.”
– Michael Kenna.
I loved that on Sunday I could send a pile of ‘sponnies’ to our newlywed friends straight after their wedding day. Still riding high on that happiness wave, I know they were sitting on the plane about to take off for their honeymoon and enjoying looking through the silly in-between moments I snapped.
Like one of our ushers pretending to be a Smeg fridge salesman.
‘The boys’ nervously walking to the car.
The furrowed brows as they attempt to put their buttonholes on each other.
The messing around and banter in between getting the ‘official’ lined up posed shots taken.
I’ve bloody loved looking through them myself! I think I’ve already done that about five times.
So, my invitation to you is, take the photo! (Not too many; make sure you’re present and living it.)
But every so often just whip out your phone and click. Or record the audio, scribble down the turn of phrase. See what little in-between moments you catch.
Print them off, too! Hold them in your hands, blue tack them to your wall and look at them when you need a lift.
Smart phones have blighted our lives in so many ways, but in this way, they’re a gift.
Imagine being able to look at these in years and decades’ time? Maybe when some of the people in them are no longer here.
Smile at the inaccurate remembering and the echo of the feeling. These moments, our little stories, will never happen again. But photos can give us a glimmer, a ripple of it. And if that’s not a little bit of magic, I don’t know what is.
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Are you a snapper? Or more of a ‘live in the moment then it’s gone’ sort of person? I’d love to know.
And I’d love to see your favourite shots here!
Janelle x
I’ve got so many photos that are accidental magic. I snap away on my phone constantly and I love it. Thank you for sharing your moments, and the stores behind them 💛
I really understand this, I'm the same! I love the random photos that take you back to that event, and even the smallest joys where you're just appreciating something for yourself (I remember how I was feeling when I took the photo even if it's not a huge event), and having them actually in front of you often, can give you a real mood boost!