Lessons of the New Year

I don’t usually do posts that are mainly writing, but the start of this year has been different than any other. Introspective and quite frankly, hard. It has brought to mind lots of thoughts about why I so love taking photos so much and will lead to changes within Freckled Hilltop Photography. I wanted to share…

Wow. 2014 already. Every New Year I feel like I am always amazed at how time has flown by. Time seems to do that more and more as I get older. When people talk about the past for example, “Oh, in 2005 that one event happened” and I am thinking it was a couple years ago. Oh, wait. That’s practically a decade ago. Yikes. 

Lesson number one of the New Year: time is not slowing down.

On New Years Day we laid pretty low. I had worked at a wedding on New Years Eve and then we went to our neighbor’s for a very late dinner and stayed until about two in the morning.  Not too rough of a night, but still in recovery mode. Then I saw I had a voicemail form my mom. My grandma wasn’t doing well and I should give them a call. Crap. Well Grandma had pneumonia and many other health issues but had always bounced back. I called them back and it was determined she wouldn’t make it through the weekend. Enter immediate breakdown. My grandma was a very special person to me. They lived a couple miles away and would often babysit me when I was a child. My grandpa was always the stern, rough one but she was always so sweet and gentle. After my grandpa died in 1996, I would go and see grandma at least once a week to keep her company. I thought I was helping her by stopping over for a visit but in retrospect, it is obvious I was the one who benefited more than she did.  She was a very religious person and pretty strict but I felt like I could talk to her about anything. I felt she was so full of wisdom and her life had been so much different than mine. She always provided me with hope and offered a different way to look at things that was much more optimistic than the view of my teenage self. When I went to college she would still write me letters every now and then. Nothing too important, just updates about the weather and what she had been up to that day, but it made me feel connected to her even being so far away at school.  When I would come back to my hometown, I would try my best to stop in and visit her. I know that if it were me, she would have given the time to stop in and I felt it was the least I could do.  After the phone call, I headed back to see her the next day. I spent a bunch of time with her over a couple of days. She passed away on the following Monday-of course she made it through the weekend like they said she wouldn’t. Always a fighter. Now I have my great memories of her and the letters she wrote. And pictures. So many pictures of her and my grandpa and their kids. Below is one of my favorites of grandma Joan baking cookies with her 10 of 11 kids. Cookie baking was always a big deal around Christmas and one of the tradition I remember most. 

Lesson number two of the New Year: you can’t put a price on a personal photograph.

A quote I saw New Years Eve: “I can’t wait to pass down this 2048px x 1536px image file to my grandkids.” –No One

This really got me thinking. I cherish the images I have of my family and grandparents. I am moved to see my grandpa when he was a sailor in the Navy or my proud grandma with her 11 kids or my mom and dad when they were dating. They are my history. As a photographer, I would love to provide those memories for others’ grandkids and family members. 

Lesson number three of the New Year: print digital images.

Yes, it has only been 14 days. A lot has been realized. So what does this mean for Freckled Hilltop? Details haven’t been hashed out, but I am sure printed photos will be a must for each client this next year. Your grandkids will thank me.