Memory lane strolls

Land of 10000 lakes

One of my mom's "I survived this family long enough for today" escape plans was her getting herself comfortable behind her worktable, or rather the dining room table no one used for actual family dining, as we, even then already, just blindly stared at whatever show was on tv, while my mom would quietly work on her photo albums. And my first of all not understanding why she even had that many photos to work through to now also putting all this time into creating photo albums that maybe no one would ever look at, when instead she could be watching whatever show was on, that clearly was so awesome that for the life of me I now wouldn't be able to tell you what it was. My mom's photos though, even after all these years, I can tell you exactly what they are. And maybe that's the little voice that stopped me from throwing out a whole stack of film negatives I found while decluttering and figured, yes, probably these are just some random photos taken with some random camera I don't need to keep. But it also probably wouldn't hurt to at least try and see what they are first.

Ode to the two-week prints

Catolica summer

I still remember those days of bringing my film roll to the store and having to patiently wait for two weeks before getting to enjoy many blurry, not focused happy memories. Being so spoiled with all cameras now delighting us with an instant "here they are!" photos, I wasn't even sure what to do with these negatives. I know I had seen something about people scanning them, but I didn't want to invest a lot of money in possibly just blurry memories. So, I traveled to that store with the big smile and went to see what other smiling customers were suggesting. One of those suggestions being the KLIM K2 Mobile Film Scanner. For $20 I was more than willing to see why other smiling customers were enjoying this little gadget. The photos in this post, except for the last one, are from this scanner, blurry and unfocused still perhaps, but absolutely made my day anyway.

Revisiting memories

It's me

And what was interesting for me looking at these photos too was, as a photographer who now comes home with so many photos, I am sure even my mom would laugh, to see all these cool light streaks and colors and faded looks that I am sure back then I would have totally frowned upon as a messed-up photo, and now work so hard to try and create digitally. How our perspective changes over time. As well as how our memory changes over time. There were times I remember as sad, and that sadness still came back now seeing photos of that time, and those photos I had no problem putting in the delete pile. There were also photos from a time that I know wasn't all easy but seeing the photos now brings a sense of happy. Not because I don't remember the stressy part, I just choose to see the memories through happy eyes. And then there were the photos that honestly surprised me. To see that many photos of me posing, me who on any good day today hates posing for anything unless it involves posing with a cute furry friend. I saw a happy smiling me, and dare I say even secure looking me. I was traveling by myself. So, either someone offered to take a photo of me, or I asked. Either way, I posed all smiles for a photo for a stranger. I know there was the shy insecure me and I have seen her in photos too. But I put her in all of my memories. Seeing these photos now showed me there was also this other me I forgot about and was more than happy to re find. And off course I had to laugh seeing photos of seagulls on a beach, the kind of photos I still come home with today.

Looking at my photo albums with the just slide the photo in and hope it fits, I have a feeling I sadly might not follow my mom's footsteps in creating the beautiful photo albums she did. But I hope she might still smile in knowing, that even if it looked like all I saw was whatever show was on tv, I also saw how much she loved her photos as I myself do today and hopefully one day from now will look back to with the same smile as I did looking back at these today.

Seagull beach then...

.... Seagull beach today