Outtake?

Photographs are snapshots of less than a second of time. They can capture people, animals, special events, a beautiful landscape, and so much more. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this cliche is absolutely true. Looking at a picture can evoke every emotion known to man...passion, love, happiness, sadness, anger, etc.

In our modern life, everyone has some kind of camera and these moments are captured nearly nonstop. With digital cameras we weed through these photos and delete all the non good ones. I take pictures every day and nearly all of them except for a couple will be deleted and a visual history of that moment deleted along with it. My excuse is that I take so many that my kids will still have 100x more of themselves as kids than I have of my childhood.  Or that I am responsible for a photo of a certain moment even existing at all so if I never took the shot then there would have never been a picture at all. No biggie if I delete it.

I was looking through my shots today and for some reason this ordinary shot of Hannah skateboarding would not let me delete it. There was something visual about it that caused an emotion. I look at it and I see Americana and the good life...skateboarding, white picket fence, a child having fun. I also see the only picture I have, and may ever have, of Hannah skateboarding. Without it, who is to say that she ever skateboarded? I also see her Spaghetti Cat t-shirt she got from a friend at her birthday last week. I am not even sure if she will remember the Spaghetti Cat when she is older but this picture will make her wonder and she will need to know. 

Anyway, this is an ordinary picture. One of many I have taken but one that luckily has survived the "delete" button.