Evolution

These daffodils were first spotted on February 18, and I took the final one, with them in bloom, yesterday, March 16. In less than a month, they went from little green sprouts into flowers. Sometimes I think if I took a picture in the morning and then again in the evening, I would be able to see a difference. Once the flowers of spring erupt, there's no stopping them.

What surprises me is how I turn my back and stop paying attention and before I know it, a bright spot of color catches my eye. I love it, and in another few weeks I'll be taking walks in the neighborhood just to capture all the flowers that will bloom and disappear in the blink of an eye. Cameras are so nice; I just wish that digital cameras had been around decades ago... but then I would be inundated with even more pictures. I realized the other day that I have almost 10,000 pictures in my iPhoto library. I have been toying with the idea of upgrading to a later version, but I am fearful that I might not be able to find my pictures without having to search around in virtual file drawers. Nothing is ever simple with computers, it seems. But with digital images, I take way more pictures than I once did.

I have actual, not virtual, drawers filled with pictures I can't bring myself to throw away, and every time I go through them, sorting, I find something that takes me back to past adventures and people long gone. The passage of my own evolution from a little girl to a senior citizen is rather interesting to contemplate. Those drawers filled with old negatives I'll never look at again, and snapshots that are a permanent record of times gone by, who can throw those things away?

Long ago, I remember my parents had amassed a huge footlocker filled with pictures taken of relatives and friends that were so old that nobody could recognize many of the people in them. I remember going through the footlocker back when my parents were alive, sorting pictures by era. I think my siblings took some of the pictures, and I myself have a few of them, old memories of days gone by.

Norma Jean and Jan 1947(?)

When I don't see somebody for a long time, they remain in my mind's eye the way they were when I last saw them, as if time only passes when I'm watching. Does everybody do that? There have been times when I've been absolutely shocked to discover that a relative who was a kid when I saw them last has become a parent! Boy, you turn your back for a minute and everything changes. Time marches on, unless someone snaps a picture that freezes a moment to be exclaimed over and appreciated sixty years later. I'm glad I became a photographer... just in time.
:-)