Sunday, November 13, 2011

Old Photographs

Sometimes the world of digital photography blows my mind. Recently I was looking at old photos of my ancestors, and I was thinking about how crazy the developments of photography have been over the last 150 years. A photograph of my great-great-grandmother was a rare and precious thing. I mean, these were people who could count on one hand the number of times they'd had their portrait taken in their entire life. And then you have my boys: in four years, I have taken literally THOUSANDS of pictures of Elijah. 

I had to laugh when I imagined having an iPhone camera and explaining it to my great-great-grandmother: This is my telephone. It fits in my pocket. It also has a typewriter and a camera all rolled up inside. With no wires attached. I'll use it to take your picture, and not only will you be able to see it immediately, but I'll also post it on an imaginary wall where people around the world will be able to see it instantly. 

I mean, seriously?

Anyway. I use Picasa for most of my photo organizing and editing, and one of the things I love about it is the ease of scrolling through and looking at old photos. ("Old" here meaning within the last five years, rather than 150 years ago.) No pulling photo albums off dusty shelves, searching for the right book or flipping pages to find the right age. With just a few clicks, I can easily find Elijah at exactly 13 months, or 2.5 years. I do need to be better about printing and preserving photos, but I do love having them all on the computer at my fingertips. 

So this week's Sunday cuteness is a photo of Jude at 12 months with the giant lion, and a photo of Elijah from around the same age. Steve and I were amazed when we scrolled through some fall 2008 pictures the other night and saw how much Elijah has changed--in many of the pictures, he hardly looks like the same kid. It makes me really curious to know what Jude will look like down the road. 

Jude and the Lion, 12 months - this was one of my favorite 12-month outfits, and Jude wore it exactly once, for this photo. He's so much bigger than Elijah was that he started out this fall already too big for a lot of our cute 12-month winter clothes. 

Elijah, around 13 months. This was one of my favorite pictures of him that month. 

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