The thing is, I got a new camera. And in the space of 7 days, I had amassed 1059 shots on the memory card. It's a DSLR and I really don’t know what I’m doing with it but I do know that you can take photos like a frenzied fashion photographer “Click! Click! Click! Click!” and suddenly you have 107 new photos, all in the space of 15 seconds. It’s thrilling. And then if you flick through the pics really quickly, it looks like one of those stick figure flipbooks you used to make at school. Awesome.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyke9aZjwQY&fs=1&hl=en_US]
But how many photos is too many?
When LD was born, I went twelve kinds of nutty with the camera. First child, the most beautiful baby ever born, yada yada yada – I was obsessive. Some months after LD’s arrival, I went through and chose favourites to print and pop in an album. I knew there was a problem when I’d filled one entire album and hadn’t gotten past the hospital post birth yet. But I ask you, nay, CHALLENGE you to choose your faves when it’s your kid. EVERY photo is worthy of printing….I have trouble deleting the digital file even when the shot is so completely blurry that I could flog it to OK! magazine as a papp snap of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt in Venice.
Okay, so print less. I learned that lesson. I do love a book of actual photos but at the rate I was going, I would have needed to rent a storage space just to house the albums. Print only the super amazing highlights. The rest can live on a disc. Perfect. But that doesn’t solve the problem of the taking of a ba-zillion photos. How does one curb that particular addiction?
My stepdad, Himself, tried to warn me. “One of my nieces or nephews, I can’t remember which” – fair call, Himself has approximately 27 brothers and sisters so who knows how many nieces or nephews we’re looking at here? – “but one of them had so many photos taken of them that they started shutting their eyes every time the camera came out.” We’d just had an especially snap happy day at LD’s baptism. But I wasn’t worried. The kid loved a camera. He really did.
But when the cracks began to show, I began to appreciate the prescience of Himself’s words. Observe the cracks –
Or this heartbreaking sequence;
So, I guess when the subject stopped co-operating, I did stop taking so many photos. But then Zee came along. Now I am, like Zee, the second child. And as most second (and subsequent) children will know, the photo count goes down DRAMATICALLY. The first kid has a photographic shrine and every other kid thereafter is lucky to get a couple of snaps at birthdays. My mum, Betty, says, “I didn’t own a camera. Blame your father!” and other lame shit like that. So when Betty made a little aside about how fewer photos of Zee I had on Facebook as compared with LD, I just knew she was waiting (with gleeful anticipation) for me to fall foul of the ‘Photographic Second Child Syndrome’ – but more fool her because Zee has probably pulled ahead in the digital photo archives. I am going out of my way to ensure that he never feels the sting of photo neglect.
But perhaps this has come at a cost. In the first day with new camera, I took many, many photos. Predominantly of Zee. Because taking photos of LD goes like this.
But back to the cost. The price poor Zee has paid for my refusal to let him be left behind, photographically speaking. Nothing could deter me from my relentless photo taking. Not children squinting, begging, bawling. “Let me get the camera!” was the catchcry of the day (to day).
But then there was this.
I have no earthly idea how I managed to capture this freakish and truly disturbing moment. Except for the fact that I took 107 photos in 5 seconds. I think, maybe, that was one too many.
So what has motherhood taught me today? Okay, truthfully, nothing. I have yet to curb my camera-crazed ways. Blame my kids – they have gorgeous heads……..
You have made my night with that post Little Mumma !!! Toooooo funny , that last pic…. GOLD
Hahaha, thanks lovey! I can’t even look at that photo – it seriously freaks me out.
OH DEAR LORD i think i just peed myself, Angie you are gold, GOLD i tell you bloody hell i wish you were coming tomorrow so i could see and hear you in the flesh 🙂 🙂 !!!!!! The photo sequence were FANTASTIC, i was nodding along to the part of printing a “few faves” off for the album, but i have sooooo many i just ordered 207 photos this was just Lila from 5ish mths to 8 mths i only did that many cos i got 50 free prints so im waiting for them to go into my account to order a further 100+ including our Queensland holiday, ANdrew growled saying isn’t it enough to have it on disc computer and SD card YES I refuse to delete them off it i have right back to my labour photos still on it and still filling gotta love a HUGE SD card 🙂 !!!
🙂
Oh so true! Funny you should write this because I have a similar topic in mind written in my head. I recently had a backlog of FOUR years’ of photos printed, and spent the last few nights attempting to sort them out for the newly-purchased albums, and dates written on their backs etc, and it was painful.
Then – just as I was congratulating myself – I realised I’d actually had all these pics printed in early May, meaning I’ve amassed another 6 months’ worth to print and sort out. It’s never ending.
I was also convinced I’d have far less pics of #2, but to her advantage, we got our DSLR when she was 5 months old, so that has definitely been rectified. She doesn’t need to worry about not having as many pictures. The stack of photos sitting next to me confirms that.
I remember that photo of Zee – it’s a classic. I have no idea how you captured such a face, but I agree the ‘continuous shutter release’ mode may have played a part 😉
Ok, so I just noticed this is an older post. Shut up, I haven’t had coffee yet…
The use of ‘Zee’ and ‘LD’ along with the “What has motherhood taught me today?” seem like big clues…BUT then you mentioned the coffee thing. his negates all previous information. 😉
Seriously, I haven’t printed photos for years. I came out of the gates strong with Luca but I was printing EVERYTHING which I soon realised was foolish. So I thought, I need to sit down and carefully select. Yeah, nah. I think I will actually enjoy the process when I finally do it but the weight of this monumental task feels unbearable. so.many.photos.
I tricked a comment out of you. Win!
being a grandmother is just as bad, there are photos that I download on to my computer as a slide-show, and some I then print off and stick on the walls, then there are special ones I put in their individual albums, and then of course, the ones I put in the brag book, that I have to show all and sundry when I travel near and far. Then of course the very special ones I carry in my wallet. I too had a good laugh at this one.