Photo by: Tomeppy

Take Lots of Photos

by Brandi Strand
Photo by: Tomeppy

The other day I looked through a photo album my husband’s grandmother made for me a couple of years ago. It was of my husband from the time he was born up until high school. There were a couple of pictures from many, many events in his life – some were major events, others were just hanging out. Especially now that we have a son, it’s really fun to have all of those memories captured in snap shots. I was looking back through pictures that we had of my childhood and there were hardly any pictures. Yeah, we had some pictures of the major stuff, but nothing compared to my husband’s family. It was then that I decided that I was not going to let my son’s life pass by without taking tiny snippets throughout.

In the digital age, there’s no excuse for lots of pictures. Digital cameras are small and compact and fit into pockets. Memory card readers, USB cables and hard drives make it easy to off load pictures and have them saved on your computer. Sites like Picasa, Flikr and Shutterfly make it possible to share those photos with family and friends. We have documented, in photos, my entire pregnancy, the delivery and the first 11 months of my son’s life.

I make sure to have a camera with me always… a quick visit to my mom’s or even to just the grocery store. I actually have two cameras…a point-and-shoot that I can throw in any bag or jacket pocket and my SLR when I want to take photos of higher quality. I don’t think I can express clearly the necessity of taking tons of photos. Even in the most minor of situations, you may wish you had a camera to capture that impossibly cute smile or your child interacting with a new toy.

Sometimes my son and my niece make quite a pair and I can’t seem to have enough pictures of the two of them interacting together. We have about 30 Gb (translates to thousands) of photos on our hard drive right now, and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. We were just taking pictures of Zack playing outside. He was holding his first Light Saber the other night at a neighbor’s house and we snapped photos of that. We snap photos of pretty much everything. My advice, take photos. Even if you don’t think it’s significant, take it anyway. You won’t regret it!

Brandi is a stay-at-home mom to her first child, Zack, 11 months. She gets her writing inspiration from the beaches of Southern California.

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9 Comments

Sometimes I think I'm a bad parent because we have 2 kids but have only had professional pictures taken once (for our son's first birthday). They're expensive, and sometimes the poses are cheesy.

Instead, we took a picture of him every day for his first year and many, many random pictures since. Whenever my husband or I have to be out of town for work, we always take pictures with our cell phones and send them. Now that I have Skype on my laptop, it's better than speaking via phone...

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My thirteen year old grandaughter spent a couple of hours going through photo albums yesterday. The pictures triggered such good memories for her and for each of us listening to her recount what she remembered. I cannot tell you how amazed we were by her very early and detailed memory that is reinforced by revisiting her childhood. What a great way to spend the holiday.

I so agree with you concerning having lots and lots of photos of daily moments and special days, too. I have three pictures of growing up of me. So sad. I have more of my kids but when the camera was broken (for two years! and we couldn't afford a new one...) - there just wasn't enough. Now I see THOSE pictures are fading and I need to scan, scan, scan, to save what we have!! I have several boxes and albums of pictures that are going to worked on for the next few months...

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My grandmother did that for me too - made a photo album with pics from childhood on. I did it with my sons also, and it is a wonderful thing to have. I have friends who actually do whole scrap books for their kids, with pics and captions and small items included, but I just did the pics - the scrap booking was way too much work for me! I do love going back and looking at the photo albums and I will pass them on to my sons one day. It's a great tradition. thanks for sharing.

Digital photography was not available. The Flash cubes were expensive ( which was required of indoor photos) and then having them developed was another cost, and let's not forget the original cost of the film.... Plus, there was no room for error. If you took a photo of the floor, you were charged 50 cents to have it developed. Skrudlands was a mail order place and I would have to save several weeks left over groceries to be able to affort to send them in...

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My side of the family are the picture takers, especially my dad so we have lots of pictures of me and my sister. My husband's family has relatively few pictures (there must be at least a dozen aunts, uncles and cousins I have never met or seen pictures of). So now I take tons of pictures of my kids. Luckily digital cameras are everywhere now so it is easier to get fun candid shots. But I admit I have never had professional photos taken of the kids.

i think it is the best thing and greatest feeling in the world to take as much pictures as possible.When people told me that i did not know what they was really saying but,having a 3yrs old and a 7-month old they change so much
it is hard to keep at times,but looking back at the pictures the feeling is unbeliviable.my 3yrs old son

Take videos, too. Their voices change and the way they move changes, too.

I kept our video camera handy all of the time when my kids were growing up and grabbed it to take video footage when they did something cute or funny, as well as a little footage of them doing regular stuff. We have footage of my son making car noises with his hot wheels, and my daughter puttering in her play kitchen and serving tea to dolls. We even have footage of the two of them arguing...

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I am one out of 4 kids and understand the time it probably took to record everything for each child back in the day. By the time my mom had me (I am the third) there weren't too many things to pass down or even a baby book. I know it isn't always easy to find the time to get every little moment recorded or on film, especially when you have multiple children.

However, with todays technology, it does make it a bit easier...

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