Stealing Pictures of Myself

I am the primary photographer for my family. Its very rare that anyone else uses my camera except for me. Because of this fact, Im not in many photos. I am, in truth, absent from about 99% of our family pictures.

I grew up in a household that was very similar to my own. My mom was the primary photographer for our household. She took the most beautiful pictures of us when we were young. She had a cool Nikon SLR and she would take pictures a lot. Im really lucky because I have wonderful photographs of my life growing up. That being said, my mom is absent from my photographic history. We have excellent shots of me and my sisters. We have great shots of my dad with us. We have great vacation shots and extended family shots and holiday shots and birthday shots, but she is nowhere to be found in any of them. She was always taking the pictures and spent zero time in front of the camera.

Im the same way.

When we went to Lake Tahoe, my sister and her family left home an hour earlier than the rest of us. In their haste, they left their camera and videocamera in the room they shared at the rental house. I ended up bringing those articles home with me and they are still in my possession today.

Last night, I decided to check out the photos that they had taken. I felt kind of naughty - like I was doing something I shouldnt be doing. To relieve my guilt, I imagined myself a female version of James Bond. It wasnt me looking at their personal pictures; it was me doing counter espionage.

You will not believe what I found: I found photos of myself! My sister had like 7-12 photos of me on her camera! I couldnt believe it. I EXIST! It felt really good and I wasnt expecting that. The photos werent all flattering, either. In fact, many of them have me looking pretty old and out of shape. But they excited me all the same. It felt good to see me on film interacting with my family. I cant full explain how excited and grateful that made me feel. I wish I could put it into words.

So I downloaded a few. That was really bad and I suppose Jennifer will be irritated with me when she reads this and finds out what I did. But I wont deny it. I downloaded some of her images off of her camera and put them into my computer. Now they're mine too. heee

Here are a few. Im so excited. :)



And if Im too embarrassed to tell you in person: thank you Jennifer and Barry.