I think one of the reasons I got into photography was that I have a very poor memory. I know there were places I saw and things i experienced as a child but I have almost no memory of them. For instance when I was seventeen I was playing with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and we toured South America. I have almost no memory of this place. I have a fuzzy image of lots and lots of power lines in Buenos Aires, I remember a huge lake I could see from the hotel room in Montevideo, Uruguay, and just bright white blinding sand on the beach in Rio. I know I was there, and if I saw it again I would remember it. My family went to Hawaii back in 2007. I wasn’t into photography then, but even when I look at the snapshots, memories come flooding back into my brain. Obviously the memories are there, but they are filed away in some recess of my mind.
The image below stimulates all the senses for me. It wasn’t that long ago that I had taken it but I forgot about the picture for a few weeks. I was going through my backup hard drive when I saw it. I remember the fear I had getting to the location not knowing if I was trespassing. (Turns out I was not) I could feel the humid air of the oncoming thunderstorm, and could smell the stagnant water of the pond. My boots were gathering mud standing beside the reeds, and mosquitoes kept attacking my ears. The picture means so much more to me because of the emotions and experience I had creating the moment. For me, that moment in time reasserts itself when I see the picture.
Use your camera, if you don’t have one, talk to Santa. Memory is fleeting. Capturing memories you can relive over and over lasts a lifetime.
Nikon D800 Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44mm f/8 ISO 100 7 image HDR