Monday, March 11, 2013

Enriching the Experience


as i was exploring one of the decrepit relics of a home at the salton sea yesterday, i found a camera carrier… not a big deal except that it had 2 memory cards in it, one of them a very high capacity one.  no name or any other identifying characteristics…. so i left my contact info on a bulletin board at the local store and took it home with me, hoping that if i looked at the pics there would be some identity clues.


 as it turned out, both cards were empty and i breathed a sigh of relief.  i would not want to be holding on to someone else’s memories… but it did get me thinking about how much having my photos enriches the experience after the fact. 


 all great experiences are so fleeting… and i do firmly believe that staying in the present is the key to many of life’s difficulties, but for me, being able to revisit a good time through photos is very life-enhancing. 


 i’m always reorganizing, deleting, editing, looking through old files for particular images and seeing details of old pics with new eyes.  i have been doing this for several years now and am just starting to realize the power of it.  

 
 so many of my experiences of the last few years can be revisited.  sure, it’s fun to share the images with others, but when it comes down to it, i want those pics for me.  they bring me right back.  thoughts, feelings, emotions, all right there. 


 i can’t even imagine coming home from somewhere and not having the pics to emphasize, enrich and revisit.  it’s become a way of life and i like it. 


4 comments:

  1. ohhh..i SO agree with you! i revisit my photos all the time too...especially my african photos, a two week time that i was in pure joy day after day!!

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  2. When I moved to Mexico, I threw out all my photos, thinking there was no one coming after me who might enjoy them. Well! I forgot about ME! I miss them terribly. So I understand the joy you get from looking into these images and remembering. They are so awesome, Patty. I have fallen in love with your pelican. (among others). hugs, Donna

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  3. i feel that nature photos somehow still hold that "presence". Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos.

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  4. I can't even imagine not taking pictures and not being able to re-visit after a certain time. Like you, I like to go through my photos over and over again and everytime I find something new in them or get a new inspiration etc. It sure had become a way of life (and not a bad one).

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