This Is Why

I was on Facebook this morning and I ran across an album of pictures that my cousin posted of my family's holiday down south. The first photo that came up was one of my dad and my heart did a little leap to see him. I was immediately overcome with a longing to go home, to hang with my peeps and make the acquaintance of our newest members. I started to cry because I could suddenly smell the air of the southern landscape cloaked in its own unique winter and see myself riding through the gray light with my family to the gathering.
One photograph took me there.

I was so grateful to my cousin for posting those shots, and that got me thinking about photography, about how much it means to me to have pictures in my life, about how we as photographers sometimes lose our perspective in our quest for the perfect picture. When the photo came up on the screen I didn't even notice most of it, not the lighting or the color balance or if the subject was framed correctly. I just saw the face of my dad and then tumbled into that cascade of emotions. When you point your camera to the action at hand, when you capture those shots of seemingly ordinary moments, you might just be creating a shiny cherished trinket. You can never know what those captured moments might look like to someone else.

This is why I scrapbook.