Thanksgiving is here and I’m thankful for a lot. Including a beautiful meal with family and friends and some major down time. A blog I follow challenged me to be more specifically thankful this year. So, instead of just saying: I’m thankful for photography or my job I’ll put it more like this:
Every once and a while my photos lack people. An Instagram shot of my silhouetted lamp might seem interesting to me. Maybe lake Erie in Buffalo where I was born (stay warm family!), my mom’s turkey at thanksgiving, or detail shots at weddings. When documenting people and their lives it eventually becomes necessary to take shots that they aren’t actually in. But overall, my bread and butter is people. To me photos are rarely interesting without a human spirit or two to fill them. They capture the essence of who we are. Happy or sad they make life interesting. People make life worth living and photographing. We change and we grow and pictures are one of our only chances to actually steal a moment, pack it away and be able to take it out at a later date and admire it. We may cry over it, miss the loved ones who are now gone, marvel over how young we look, or laugh at how funny our haircuts were. It’s this special kind of magic that only comes from the art of photography. It’s not something that can come from a picture of a beautiful flower.
Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday! I love to cook with my family, watch the parade, snuggle in, eat a ton, listen to Christmas music, go to the movies, nap, and just be lazy! I hope you all relax and enjoy this long holiday weekend!
– Leah
