Glass

At the age of almost 27, my father has little opportunity to get cross with me these days. But occasionally I still catch him rolling his eyes at me... It's mostly when I get the camera out. He thinks I spend too much time taking photographs  of E rather than enjoying just being in the midst of it and enjoying her.

I agree, I spend a lot of my life observing through glass, through the lens of my camera. But I suppose dad doesn't see the day to day stuff we do, where the camera isn't out and we are just enjoying being. When we see dad, I want to photograph it all as we don't see him all that often and E is too little to remember our visits just yet.

I certainly photograph more of our lives than a lot of my friends do of theirs. There's two reasons. 1) I just love taking photographs, the challenge, the exploration, the creativity. 2) I want my children's lives to be as well documented as they can be. I want them to be able to look back, perhaps when I am gone, when they have their own children, you get my drift, and to not have to wonder about stuff, to have answers.

Actually, there's a 3rd reason: I don't want to forget it. It's all happening so quickly, being a mum, being pregnant, and I'm terrified that already I can't remember when stuff happened without looking in her baby book. The thousands of photographs keep it safe when my brain can't and needs a reminder. 

Sometimes I find that looking at life through glass helps me see more, not less. 

Sorry dad, you won't win this one.