Personal- A Funny Story.

Going to share a personal story now.

I find photography a strange thing. I love it so much and have been taking photos as long as I can really remember- well not quite but you get what I mean by it.

This is the story of a photo that at the time was filling an assignment for college but soon became very important to me and also makes me smile and glum at the same time.

This is the photo in question. Taken on a Sunday afternoon in late January day in 2004 in my folks back garden of my Mum (in front) & her parents (my grandparents). This was taken to meet an assignment for my hnc photography portrait- fill flash brief. I took it quickly as it was cold and then didn’t think much about it beyond as the hand in date was about a month later.

Little did we know that a week later my gran would have a heart attack, get taken to hospital, never fully recover and just over a month later on the 29th February 2004 would pass.

When your a photographer the first thing you must do is to then printed a copy of this photo for my mum and upsetting though it is that print has sat in a frame on a sideboard in my folks hallway ever since.

A month or so later when I work was assessed and marked this photo failed the assignment as a good social example of fill flash. I was pretty broken by that ( when I’ve told this story in teaching that’s when the faces drop!)  looking back it isn’t the best photo but the technical aspect of it is not what is important about photography or especially this photo.

Every time I’m at my folks house and I see this photo it’s that double edge sword of loving the photo as it’s the last photo of my Gran. It’s great that I had to take the photo and took the chance to make it. It gives my Mum an important memory. It also always makes me remember it was actually a failure.

At the end of the day I would much rather have a photo that invokes a memory and emotion than it being 100% technically perfect.

Remember folks- just take the dam photo. You will regret not taking it many many times.

I’m posting this today as it’s the 5th/ 20th anniversary of my Gran passing and she is in my thoughts today. It’s also in my thoughts that we all know she deliberately held on to pass on the 29th. Her humour was very much ‘I’m not having you missing me every year’

Xx