Why make it a memory This might sound odd coming from me, a dedicated photographer, but there are times when it’s better to leave the camera behind and make a memory in real life. These images therefore are not from the night described but from another when I was out walking by myself. Setting the scene As the sun started it’s early journey into the mountains, we walked through the field, air crisp, new snow laying softly on the bare branches of the trees as they reached towards the coming moon. Sky stained apricot, amber, glowing between the cotton tufted clouds like a pearl. I was tempted to go home and grab the camera, but I knew that I would miss this amazing moment.
Instead I concentrated not on aperture, and ISO, but on the cloud formation, counting the bird chirps as sundown settled in for the night, our footsteps solemn and crunching, the grass below the snow brittle. The feeling of the air as it tried to find a bare spot to tickle our skin, a beautiful sunset made all the more lovely because I was fully involved in watching it, completely in that moment, there with my love, the sky wondrous.
This is what I found out I realized that there are times when we should capture those amazing images in our brain, use our eyes to memorize it, file it away in our head instead of picking up the camera. Those very special memories that can’t be absorbed through the lens, the moments when the feelings overwhelm your heart, they are the ones that you should use all of your senses to record, not the camera.
We can miss so much using a camera to capture memories, the nuances of the light might be saved, but the physical and emotional memory of that moment won’t be in the photograph.
Not every moment needs a camera And not every moment merits that kind of memory, but there are some that should be cherished without the camera. That night with the stunning sunset I choose not to go and get the camera, and instead choose to make a memory. Pas de regrets — No regrets. I made mine a memory, not just a photograph.