We do not remember days, we remember moments. (Cesare Pavese)
This photograph of Ballyscanlon Lake has lived on my computer for almost five years now and I remember the moment I took it as if it were now.
It was back in late September 2010, just a few weeks after my father died and I followed the sunset out to Ballyscanlon Lake. I remember nothing of the day involved but will never forget the peace and solitude that I experienced watching the sun setting on that still evening when the air was full of fragrance after rain.
Ballyscanlon was a favourite haunt of Dad’s and I had such a strong sense that night of his presence there with me.
It never ceases to amaze me how particular photographs can bridge time and peel back layer after layer of thought, emotion and experience.
Do YOU have special photographs that are like bridges to precious moments?
Photos have not been a part of my life very much.
That feels sad to me, Paul, but I know that they don’t play as big a part in lots of people’s lives as they do in mine. Maybe you’ll be converted yet!!
there are so many, I shall have to think!
Look forward to hearing the final verdict, Willow.
😉 still thinkingxx
Good woman!
😉
I have many which I look at and reminisce but two photos I look at each day many times. They are in my kitchen on the dresser. One is of young Daniel jumping off the pier into the water, full of life, and the other is off myself and my seven girl friends on a night out. We had such a great night and as I look at it I think of it as my ‘before’ photo, when life was wonderful for all of us and young Dan was alive.
I don’t look at it mournfully. For me it is a reminder. To appreciate every day, for we never know when we are taking our last ‘before’ photo.
Your photo here is beautiful, and I can well imagine how you would have felt on such an evening after losing your dad.
Tric, thanks for sharing these profound thoughts. No, we never, ever know.
I must say that I felt as if Dad was with me ~ and I’m not in any way spiritual. It was just the kind of evening and place he adored.
This is so beautiful and peaceful Jean. I feel grateful that I have captured some wonderful memories in the past few years!
Photography is so readily available to us nowadays … I’m grateful!
Glad you like it, Val.
I guess I’m especially fortunate as my father was such an avid photographer and we have thousands of photos stretching back all our lives. It seems only natural to continue the tradition.
I have pictures of different family members who have since passed on, and each evokes a memory. There are also birthday gatherings of our children and when looking at them a memory comes to mind. Pictures are a wonderful way to preserve a memory. My hubby and I have gone to some very nice places for vacatiions and we look at them remembering significant happenings. I love your picture and what it means to you…
Joni, I love your point about pictures preserving memories. They certainly don’t allow us to forget things as they were, especially the clothes!
I am visually inspired, so photos mean everything and losing them is like another death. That’s why, whenever my computer decides to have a fit, my husband sees the worst of my hysterical panic until he fixes it and calm returns. (Yes, it’s all backed up – but still…)
Hi Frances, oh I know that feeling and no amount of back up ever seems enough.
This is a lovely post and photo, Jean. Photos have been a big part of our life and there are so many that I’d have to really think to choose one special memory. My hubby has kept our photo albums in order with dates and comments for our 27 years together. Now with digital, I have our “albums” on our desktop. They’re organized but it’s not the same as sitting down and flipping through a physical album. If we take a special trip or if there’s a momentous event, we’ll put a small album together but the real issue now is room to store them! 🙂
WOW, no wonder you’re writing such romantic poetry still!!!!!
A fabulous watery image Jean
Robin, thanks for this lovely comment.
Such a beautiful, serene scene Jean…
Thanks Jewels. It was pretty surreal.
I have one of those digital picture frames that you download from your camera computer chip (I guess that’s what it’s called) so it holds about 1200 pictures and gives a brief moment of each one..it plugs in and you just let it go on and on..it never gets boring watching it as it has caught that special moment in time…
Joni, I’ve often thought of getting one of those and you’re making me think even twice as hard now.
That’s one stunning yet serene sunset with water reflection, Jean … making your dad proud! Growing up, I was always the one with a camera. Now the blog has become my photo album… lol 🙂 ♥ ❤
That’s interesting that you were the one with the camera growing up. I always think there’s only room for one person with a camera in a house.
Hmmm… you might be right about that… I wonder why
♥ ❤
I think it’s all about roles ~ pardon the pun!
Hahaha… I enjoy puns! 🙂 ♥ ❤
I had noticed!
LoL … it’s fun to pun and take time to rhyme! 🙂 ♥ ❤
Thank you dear friend; let’s start a trend!
Okay, wanna sit here a while and make rhyming our style!? 🙂 ♥ ❤
That is a beautiful image Jean – very tranquil but such presence.
“It never ceases to amaze me how particular photographs can bridge time and peel back layer after layer of thought, emotion and experience.”
What amazes me is how you language experiences and thought and emotion in such tantalizing and poetic ways, “…peel back layer after layer…” And then, you add those thought-provoking questions and engage us in peeling back our own layers.
I have been in love with photography since I got my first camera, a 35 millimeter used Konica picked up in a pawn shop. I still have many of the photos I took with it, even after it got a good dousing in the Gulf of Mexico when I was washed off a jetty with the camera around my neck. Opened it up, dried it out, and it continued to take great pictures.
Thanks very much for your kind words, Suz.
Sounds like your camera was determined to be part of your life.
Lovely. And sometimes I do feel a presence, very strongly. I like think it’s real, and a cosmic-consciousness thing.
Sandy, I’m glad you identify with that sense of presence. It can be so very strong and is real in some mysterious way.
Such a beautiful image.. You know, reading the comments, I think you are right. There is only room for one photographer in the house. And in this one it is me! In my parent’s it was my dad. What kills me is, years ago, after my parents divorced, the slides and movies ended up in my sister’s house. When she moved, she threw them all out as none of us agreed to take them. I am still hitting myself to this day as there are now special printers that can transfer slides to jpeg… All those memories. Trashed.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh no! That’s awful that they were dumped. I have all Dad’s slides and watch them on the screen with the old projector.
Kills me. I’d rather no longer think about it…😡
I’m not surprised. Best to put it to one side.
Wonderful post, fabulous image…
Oh, yes – I do have precious moments (which I am very grateful to have).
Thanks Malin. I think those precious moments are key to sustaining us.
That sure is one beautiful pic Jean. Occasionally you get one which is very special, but generally they can’t replace those in your memory.