I recently had cause to look up some old family photographs, especially of me forty years ago. Well as my mother enjoys doing those sorts of things and holds the entire stockpile of my family growing up, I let her do it. Once we got past the 'oh what a beautiful baby you were' stage and me asking 'why did you dress me in that ?', I did manage to filter them down to a few that I had in mind. The browny orange hue that were the photographs at that time were never ever going to be award winners but what they did very well is capture a moment in time.
One of the photos showed my very first steps, something you would miss if you took the time to set the camera up, choose your setting etc - one blink and it becomes only a memory, a story as opposed to a picture. Others showed my first birthday, a photograph of my brother and I. I did find some older ones of my grandfather in Africa in the army. When I saw other peoples photographs at the group I was going to, they had pretty much the same results but each was able to tell the story as to why the photograph had been taken.
I sometimes think that when you get deeper into photography, you sometimes forget that it is a lot of the time about capturing a moment it doesn't have to be all about stunning images. Just because it doesn't follow the rules or it just depicts a slightly drunken couple on a night out or your other half pulling a funny face doesn't mean its not worth while. No one will arrest you for it.
After all, if a photograph provokes a smile, some happiness and a story has it not done its job?
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