Yes, I’m a Shutterbug

At a recent scrapbooking retreat

This week’s topic is one I suggested: Looking at the photos on your phone (or camera, if you still use one), what place or type of event do you tend to photograph most often?

I’ve been an avid scrapbooker for over twenty-five years, and I love going through the pictures I’ve taken. Now that I’ve upgraded to a phone that takes great pictures as well as video, I take even more photos than I did before. So recently, I took stock of the pictures I’ve taken during the past few years. Here’s what I found.

Things that are NOT in my pictures:

• Unless it’s a special meal someone made for me, or something that’s really unusual, I don’t take pictures of what I’m eating.
• I’m not much for selfies, but after looking through albums I realized that I’m not IN any of these pictures, so lately I’ve been attempting to take them more often. There are hundreds of pictures from my trips to London, Paris, the Greek islands, and Tokyo, but I’m in very few. In addition to bad selfies, I’ve gotten better about handing my phone to someone and asking for a picture to prove “I was there.” 

Things that ARE in my photos:

• My activities, such as band and orchestra concerts, scrapbooking retreats, and writer events such as book signings and workshops I attend.
• My kids’ and grandkids’ activities. I’ve always made it a point to attend as many of their activities as possible: band, choir, all sports, theater, whatever. Among my nine grandkids, I’m known as “the grandma who always takes pictures.” 
• Places I go and unusual things I see: For a while after retiring, I took a major trip every other year, but the pandemic and my husband’s health issues put a stop to that. Now, I look forward to short road trips and weekend gatherings, such as my three day road trip to Shipshewana, Indiana.
• Screenshots of things I see on the internet also appear in my photo files. Sometimes I share them, and sometimes I pull them up just for a laugh.

But to answer the original question about what appears most often, I’d have to say that honor goes to my two youngest grandkids. They live closest to me, and I’m often called upon to take care of them. And in between babysitting calls, I look for places to take them. They enjoy going to plays and concerts as well as the usual kid stuff. I’m blessed. I try to take pictures so that when I’m at the point where I can’t go, or they grow up and move on, I’ll have the pictures to remind me of the fun times.

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