Its Later Than You Think
July 12, 2009
Three months ago, I lost my father. Since I am the oldest of five children who were all raised on a working family dairy farm in Williamston, Michigan, I can’t remember a time that he was not there for me; until now. For the last few years my dad has been in poor health, and would not let me take his picture. Needless to say, as I look through my digital pictures, there just aren’t many at all.
I did have one dream, and that was to photograph him with his great grand children, Josiah and Jennifer, while he was sitting in his lazy boy chair and holding a model of a John Deere tractor. It would have required a minimum of set-up because I would need to use two flashes on two tripods, one to bounce the light off the ceiling, and the other to fill in any shadows, but I could have set that up ahead of time. I was looking to capture that quiet affection between my dad and his young great grand children. It never happened. The real sadness that comes to me is because I have been able to do this scene for other people. I do hope that someday they understand some of the real value of those portraits.
So I started to dig deeper looking for pictures of my father, and turned to the 8 mm movies that had no sound. Keep in mind that the roll of film for each segment was only 3 minutes long so you had to really think about what you wanted to put on that roll. I came across my own children playing in the large above ground oval pool at my parent’s home. And wouldn’t you know it, I had concentrated on getting the picture of my boys, and missed including my father who had come over to help one of them out. All you can see is dad’s arm with his watch and wedding ring on. Foolish me, I thought! I sure wasn’t thinking of framing the whole picture.
Today we have so much more to work with in the way of getting our pictures, and being able to share and treasure them, all at a fraction of the cost that it used to be. But I fear that for many of us we are going to end up with little more than most people did fifty years ago! Why? Mostly because we are lazy, and take a lot for granted; we don’t want to do that extra little bit of work that makes all the difference!
However, I do want to share something of the past with my father with you. It is a picture that I took of him and my little brother when I was just a teenager with my first little camera purchased with babysitting money that I had carefully saved.
My Father on his John Deere 730 Diesel
So the next time you are with your parents think about the fact they will not always be there for you, and seize the moment to capture photographs that will last for generations.
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
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