Old Pics - Visitors

This is an old photo from a disposable camera (well a scanned version), you know before we all had cameras on our phones!  This particular photo was taken over 10yrs ago (summer 2003), hard to believe... I swear we're still that young at heart (and looks, of course).  This photo was taken during our first year together here in The Netherlands.  Well, the pic itself was taken in Dunkerque (Dunkirk), France... back in the days when we used to explore the country or bordering countries every weekend.  Before we left Florida to start our new life here, we offered an open invitation to all of our friends and family that if they scrounged up the money for the flight we would give them a place to stay.  At the time we didn't really expect anyone to visit except for family.  Of course my Mom & step-dad turned up a few months after we arrived, and that summer a whole lot of friends decided to visit also.  They all picked the same summer (heat wave without a/c)... as soon as one set left another set arrived.  By the time the 3rd set of friends arrived we were unfortunately out of vacation time from work and money (sorry Ashley & Ursula!)  But it was so nice giving our young friends (all in their early 20's at the time) a chance to see Europe and to experience The Netherlands as we knew it, beyond Amsterdam and windmills.  Since then well, a lot of these friendships have faded away over time and I think only one more friend has taken the trip over to see us.  But luckily for us my parents & their partners have become regulars, even to the point I don't panic when they say they're going for a stroll through town.  (In years past I was sure they would never find their way back.)  Our living situation is more limited now that we have a kid, so nowadays when my family visits it is a small investment because they also have to arrange accommodations.  Hopefully one day we'll be able to sell our apartment and get the house we talk about so often.  And then maybe the extended family will decide to make the journey, hint-hint!

Old Pics #2 - Cameras

Even at a young age I was armed with a camera!  You can ask most anyone I know and they'll tell you 95% of the time I have a camera on me snapping shots here and there.  My interest in cameras and photography began when I was a toddler, as you can see in the old photo from the early 80's.  My grandfather (I called him Gramps) loved photography, he was one of the few people I knew that owned a Polaroid camera in the 80's.  He wasn't alone, my grandmother (Grammy) took her fair share of photos also, helping to document my early years.  These years sparked something inside me and by the time I was a teen I always had a disposable camera on hand.  I wouldn't say it's the actual camera or composition of the photo that keeps me interested, documenting life is why I tote a camera around.  My teenage years and early 20's were caught on film, whether it should have been or not.  Really how many drunken party photos does a teenager need?  I could have blackmailed half of my high school, if needed, ha-ha!  Throughout the years I have thrown out a lot of the unneeded pics from school but I did keep some to help spark the memories.  I guess that's what photos are to me, memories you don't want to forget, but when life gets busy those memories slowly disappear into the dark cervices of our minds and these photos bring the moments back to life.  Since we bought our first digital camera sometime in the early 00's photography has changed for me.  I take too many pictures, making them almost lose their importance.  When you have one picture of you and your first dog, you hold on to it and cherish it.  When you have 500 of your latest dog, well, the meaning sort of fades.  But no matter what, I keep documenting.  My relationship with my husband, our wedding, honeymoon, vacations, pregnancy, all of it's in pictures.  And just like my grandparents, I am now photo documenting my daughters life.  And since blogging and getting to often use my father-in-laws Digital SLR camera well, a new world has opened.  My creativity is slowly breaking through.  But I must admit, I remember very little from my high school photography class and I still have a long journey ahead.  The biggest problem I face when working with the DSLR is my vision, I wear contacts and it's quite hard for me to get the clear shots I imagine once I've taken it off automatic.  It's kind of hard being a photographer when you have crap vision!  My collection of photos keeps growing and growing though, not only do I collect pics we've taken, I also collect childhood pics taken by other family members.  And I have real fascination with old-old photos.  My grandmother keeps me supplied with pics of her relatives long gone.  And I find plenty of websites supplying photos of what cities looked like when cameras first came to be in the 1800's.  Have you ever seen a pic of your street from 1901 or 1918, I've seen mine!  Nowadays people tend to capture their lives through the cameras on their phones, maybe one day that'll be me too (I had a short stint of phone pics until I messed up the lens), but for now I'll stick to my little point and shoot digital camera. 

Old Pics - Fishing

It's funny to look back at old pictures and see how some things change and some things never do.  When these shots were taken in the early 80's, fishing was a huge part of my life, I naturally took on my grandfather's hobby and he was happy to include me.  Whether I was out with him on the lakes surrounding town or practicing in my grandparents garage, fishing and boating were part of my childhood. 

What's changed... I can't bring myself to touch the worm much less kill it in order to bait the hook, I don't have a boat at my disposal, I don't own a fishing rod, my grandfather died in a boating accident, I don't play with dolls anymore (even though I did play with Barbies until I was a teen), I don't have bangs (I finally gave them up when I turned 20yrs old), someone else is making memories in my grandparents house, I moved countries, I'm not tan anymore (growing up in Florida you can't even help it), and my hair is a different color.

What hasn't changed... I still love water and boats, have a big imagination, live in jeans and cotton shirts, wear plastic shoes (gotta love Crocs), love to document life through pictures, want to pass on my childhood activities to my daughter (we've already started with photography and gardening), my love and close connection to my grandmother, the fond memories of my grandfather, my curiosity, and my pot belly!

Periodically I'm going to post old pics, and see what ideas flow through my fingers.