Talk Without Speaking

Where does something like a lifelong love of photography come from? Perhaps the answer to that question isn’t that hard to uncover. While visiting one of my father’s best friends in Scotland, he gave me scanned copies of many of his pictures from when my father was growing up. The one above was the one that fascinated me the most.

My father sat down with his father and journaled the story of his life and there is a deep sadness that I never got the chance to do the same. And so these little glimpses into Dad’s life are…well…inexplicably valuable.

I have no recollection of my Dad getting the Pentax 35m camera that took so many hundreds of pictures of me while I grew up. When I bought Dad his first, and only, digital camera for his 65th birthday, I genuinely didn’t know how well it would be received. But to say that he loved it is, I think, an understatement. I would walk into his den and he would have digital pics of his paintings opened up in Photoshop, zoomed in to 1600x magnification, marvelling at how the paint colours were blending together.

Fast forward to today. I look down at the seemingly ever growing collection of camera battery chargers on the floor as we ready ourselves to head out for another day of Olympic shooting. I flick through years of photographs with small clicks of my fingers; a glorious bombardment of sights, memories, sounds and emotions. 6 weddings and a funeral. Powerful stuff.

I couldn’t explain to you why the drive to capture life’s moments compels me while others are content to simply move on through. It’s so easy to share our life experiences with each other now…it seems easier by the moment actually.

Ultimately, this is a passion, one that I have inherited from my father it seems. And that brings its own power with it as well. Dad said ’seize the day’ and so we should. Do what you love. Love what you do. Let’s start.

www.feelingphotography.com