Thumbing through a Year's Worth of Snapshots

Today, I began one of my favorite year-end tasks. At this time during each of the past several years, I have gone through all the many photographs I have taken of my girls during the year, picked out my favorites, and arranged photo collages to hang on the walls of my house.

Photography has become a passion of mine. I am not very good at it. I know absolutely nothing about the technical aspects of photography. I can't even explain in any intelligent manner how a camera captures a scene and translates it to a digital image. I am a novice when it comes to taking pictures, but I absolutely love taking my cheap digital camera and capturing moments in time.

I like to take shots of nature. Mountains, especially. And, this past year of travel for Manuelito Navajo Children's Home has offered me lots of spectacular views to photograph. BUT, my absolute favorite photography subjects are my girls, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Grace.

I've taken untold thousands and thousands of photographs of my girls, from their very first moments of life to the moments of fun we enjoyed this past week. I know that tired of dear old dad springing the camera on them (incessantly, it must seem), but I love to capture them in so many of life's moments: from the posed to the unexpected. Yet, I know from their smiles and giggles that they love to look through the pictures weeks and months and years later. And, I know that as they grow older, they will cherish the captured moments of their lives.

As I "worked" my collection of 2008 photographs tonight, my mind drifted back to so many wonderful experiences: birthday parties, road trips, family gatherings, those unconnected moments, Six Flags, zoos, afternoons in the park, fun in the snow, LCU basketball and volleyball games, Leadership Training for Christ, Four Corners Encampment, swimming pools, and much, much more. What a blessing: a moment's glance at a photograph can take you back to the moment, to relive it again, albeit in a quick and fleeting way. And, I know 10 years from now, 20 years, even when I'm 80, that moment can be relived again.

(The photo above is of Hannah and her cousin Zachary, taken on Christmas day.)