By
Mary Khon
Hola a todos queeridos!
I cannot believe the last month of the year has arrived! And due to the election results, it has arrived with much gusto!
So, how are you, queeridos? Having fun yet? While the orange will not be with us for much longer, COVID19 still is here and it is as dangerous as before. So, whatever you do this Christmas season, and all throughout the winter season, you need take precautions no matter the circumstances.
I really do not have anything serious to talk about today, but I do have something I would like to share with you. It is not a serious matter, but it is a very imperative matter that becomes essential at the most unexpected moment.
For years I have received criticism by friends and family for my annoying hobbit of taking pictures. I mean, I take pictures all the time. Before we had cell phones, I was spending a lot of money on cameras so I could have the best practical photo camera. Then, I would spend a lot of money, first buying film (you might not remember those), and later paying to develop such film. Much later, I spent a lot of money buying cameras that could upload images to a computer, and now I’m spending money on cell phones. Despite my obsession with taking pictures, I have never spent money buying a professional camera or anything. I’m not a photographer, I’m simply an afficionado who likes to take pictures of friends, family, gatherings, events, etc. Why? I don’t know; I just do. Needless to say, I have hundreds and hundreds of pictures stored in boxes and photo albums. And now, in the age of technology, I have thousands of images stored in external hard drives, iCloud services, and in my three different computers.
The problem with my obsession is that I don’t have any method of saving these images. They aren’t by date or event and they are all over the place. Luckily, one of my computers orders images by year, month, day, and I am happier. Still, I have boxes and boxes of images stored in the garage, and it will take me months before I can make them all digital. I should, but I haven’t.
Anyway, I do believe that my obsession with amateur photography pays off, especially when it comes to unexpected matters. For example, when one of my sisters suddenly passed away a few years back. I was the one that had the most recent pictures of her. And, after the shocked and the emotional trials and tribulations, everyone asked me for the last pictures of her life on earth. That experience let me know that my amateur obsession had at least, a good outcome. Since then, my annoying hobbit has intensified to the point that I had to ask myself if taking so many pictures was even healthy. And now, I evaluate the situation when taking photos with my phone. Sometimes I take one or two, other times I take 10 or 15.
A few days ago, tragedy struck again. And one of my dearest and closest friends passed away due to COVID19. And what do you know? The last person to be around him and the last person to take pictures of my friend was me. So, once family and friends knew I had the last images of my friend, they all started to ask for them. So, I guess my annoying hobbit has paid of once again.
So far, I have inundated my Facebook page with images of my late friend, posting about our adventures and our tenured years. To all our friends and family members, my images have captivated the many years my friend was part of our lives. And I couldn’t be happier.
The moral of the story is, my dear queeridos, that you need to document every moment in your life and every event you spend with your friends and your love ones. You are never going to know how those images; those pictures are going to come back and serve you later.
I am not saying you need to walk around with a camera glue to your forehead, recoding every single second that passes, but I am saying that you should always take a picture or two whenever you are with friends and/or love ones. Capture the moment so you can keep it forever, so you can appreciate it later, and most importantly, so you can remember it as time goes by.
Next time a friend or a relative tells you something because you are taking one too many pictures or because you are annoying everyone with you picture taking tasks, ignore them. Smile at them and keep on taking pictures. Then, save them in your computer or a hard drive, and make sure you give your images names and a classification. That way, when you are looking for them, you can easily find them and use them when necessary. Trust me, you will thank me later.
If you have never thought of taking pictures, it is never too late to start. And what better time to start than the month of December, where the celebrations will be on ongoing (safely I hope) for many days.
Enjoy your winter holidays, queeridos!