I think photography is my number 1 hobby. Photography lets you capture an image of something that will be around long after you have gone. It’s a moment in history that you have preserved. I sometimes think, will someone look at one of my photos and wonder what the subject was thinking or what the photographer was thinking when they took the photo?

I sometimes wonder what the subject was looking at. Are they looking at the photographer or a loved one off in the background? I wonder where they are at and who else was there when the photographer clicked the shutter.  Even in the old paintings I catch myself wondering about this. I guess because I look at some of mine and remember the story of the photo happening. In one photo as soon as I clicked the button a fight broke out. When I look at that photo that is what I’m seeing… the moment before the fight. Others will look at the photo and thing, oh that’s a great family photo, “What a perfect family”.

Then I look at the odd photo that were staged. The ones where we are looking goofy or mad. The ones that we acted as if we were going to hit someone, or jump off something. Is people in our future going to look at those and be going WTF?

I think that is what draws me to photography. It’s the documenting of my family for generations to come. My great-great-great grand-kids will have thousands of photos to look at and try to know us. Unfortunately I’m not in most of the photos, I’m always on the other side of the camera.

In some of my family photos when I was growing up I’ll see a picture at 5 then another at 9. What happened in the 4 years in between? Or I think of an old car or motorcycle I owned but there is not 1 single photo of it ever happening.

Maybe I’m unique or odd but if I had to choose 1 hobby over all it would be photography.