New year already!
Christmas this year was a hard one, our first without Dad.
Despite being a photographer, I had never before appreciated quite how precious photos are, once someone is gone, and that is the only record you have of their expressions, their smiles, the way they changed and yet stayed the same over a lifetime.
Mum and I went to our family for Christmas Day – I didn’t have the camera out much, as I wanted to be there, not observing. Here are a few of my favourites from the day, though:
Gran, opening her photo calendar which was a present from Mum & me; Gran, my uncle Will and Mum in Gran’s house; my auntie Caroline, Gran and Mum sharing a giggle at the table; Christmas dinner.
Small memories, taken unobtrusively, for my own internal memory box rather than for presenting to a client. The technical details don’t matter, for photos like this – I was there as family, not as photographer, and using flash to get more light and a “perfect” shot would have intruded and made the moments too staged. But I have caught some precious, precious moments, now preserved forever.
And that’s why I do what I do.
