when you forget to take the shot

7.20.2019

Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

tell your story anyway





Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

It's summer time and the living is easy...

Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

OK...well. So. The living isn't actually easy. We got a full house and activities and summer school and I work at home and yeah...

Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

Despite the normal and the not so normal of life going on, we have been pretty good about scheduling family time and activities.


We recently made it to our county fair. It's small. Seems to get getting smaller. But it's quaint. And this family just has a knack for making the simple things in life fun.


I mean who can't get happy about seeing a llama. Or is that an alpaca? It's a llapaca.

Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

And the chickens. Who can't love seeing chickens? Behind a cage. Having been a chicken owner, I was more than happy to see someone else's chickens. Oy.

But...
here's what very often happens...
and actually is happening more now that my kids are older and one has already launched and these times together are so much harder to schedule...

I forget to take the shot.

Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

What does that mean when I am showing you here several shots of our evening at the fair?

Tell Your Story by Jamie Pate | @jamiepate

It means that while we were in the goat barn, one of my daughters and I were slowly sauntering. We would stop at each pen. Talk to the goats. Find out their name if it was posted. She would pet their noses. We would banter a little back and forth with non-intentional conversation. It was just her and I.  Connecting. If only for a few moments. While the others scampered ahead of us. And while I could have snapped a shot of her petting a goat. Instead, I was in the moment. She and I. No pressures. No work. No adulting. No parenting. Just being. With my kid.

Connecting.

And I can't really take a photo of that.

But I can still tell the story.
And I can remember.
And I can contemplate the little moment that it was via words.
And just let the 'other' photos that I DID take support the memories and that moment.


When put like that, there are no 'forgotten' shots.
It's only forgotten, if I fail to document.
If not written down, then forgotten.

And so, the daily renewed commitment, to tell my story.

6 comments:

  1. We have a small county fair here too...and it too is getting smaller...I hope it doesnt ever disappear...Love your posts! My grandsaughter and I were sitting out on the patio in the afternoon watching dragonflies dart about..and the occasional butterfly...didnt get a pic because thiose darn dragonflies are fast! And it was just nice sitting there chatting with her...��

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    1. It IS just nice to sit there in the moment.

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  2. That is an excellent entry...sometimes I am at an activity photographing and when I look back, it's almost as if I was not present, because I wasn't connecting...the camera was in the way.

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    1. Yes. I totally get that side of it too. It's a hard balance for sure. Being in the moment. But also documenting the moment. We can just keep trying.

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  3. As much as I have hundreds of pictures waiting to find a home like in an album or something like it, I manage to have empty spaces or holes in my journal. That is okay, though.... I will fill up the space with pictures that I do have and thoughts that are still with me. Many thanks to a special friend for sharing this with me❤

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  4. So glad I am not alone on this. I get you. So many photos waiting for a home. I like to think of that as there is always something to do if and when I get bored. Ha ha. Hey. thanks for stopping in and sharing your thoughts.

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