Happy Birthday Son...And All The Taken Pictures

Today my youngest turns fourteen. It's amazing how fast life passes and seeing the children grow into adults is one of the most effective way of demonstrating that thought. We were all together tonight--a rarity with five adults in a family of six. 

Several months ago I was asked by my kid's grandmother for a picture of my youngest. She had pictures of the rest of her grandchildren on a shelf in her house...

All but the youngest. We remedied that last month. 

Her request got me thinking. I take so many pictures, many of my children. We have literally hundreds of physical photos of the older ones because back in the day, we used film and had the pictures developed. Once digital became the standard, everything's on the computer, or backed up on disk drives. I wondered just how many pictures I've taken of my youngest. And with over 20k pictures backed up, going through them all wasn't really an option.

Thank goodness for a somewhat creepy feature of Macintosh computers. They use facial recognition software to identify people in your photo library. I clicked on that and there they were. I know it's not all the pictures I have of him, but I was so happy to find the collection.

Happy birthday to my youngest! He's an absolute joy!

Of All The Pictures I've Ever Taken...These Are Some Of My Favorites

More than a decade ago, I convinced the kids to come outside for a photoshoot. Back then I shot on film with my trusty Olympus OM-10, and since film was expensive, I didn't ask the kids to pose very often. Thanks to digital, they're probably be tired of me wanting to take their pictures.

But that's what fathers with a love of both photography and their kids do--we take pictures of the family.

I've taken a lot of pictures over the years, before and since that winter day all those years ago, and I can say with surety that looking at these pictures makes me happy. These are some of the most favorite pictures I've ever taken. I love them.

Last year I asked the kids to come back for another photoshoot. You've seen those shots where people re-create an old photo. I didn't match things exactly. My oldest was wearing red in both the before and after shots (smart kid...), but that was just coincidence. 

The picture of the kids is a physical object. It's in a box with many other photos of them, my wife and I, and other family members. There's something about holding a picture of the way life once was that's special, and when the subjects in that photo mean so much, it's that much better.