An obsession with Photography

Recently, we had the pleasure of traveling with my sister and her family and got to spend some quality time with my nieces walking around the streets of NYC. It had been more than a decade when they had seen the photographer ;  “the crazy about pictures” side of me. In fact, they remember me breaking two cameras in 2 days when the last time all of us were together at Disney world, when they were visiting the US for the first time, and I wanted to capture every moment of it.

This time it was New York city, capturing every detail. No more carrying an actual camera, those days are long gone. It is only a smart phone. My phone memory is always full whenever I return from any trip. All the cousins were discussing my obsession while we were sitting down outside the Magnolia Bakery, talking about how many pictures I take, and I realized at that point that they hardly took any pictures. My children said there was no need for them to take any pictures because they knew I had them covered. Interesting!!! Is that why they call me from college from time to time asking for a picture of this or that or a video of them doing this or that?? Hmmm, I realized at that moment that I had become an unofficial historian of our family.

Here is a picture of Magnolia Bakery. Have you been there? 

One of them asked, how and where did the obsession start? Where do I begin??

I grew up in a tiny rural community in India. I do not have any pictures of me as a baby or a toddler, not even any school age photos. I did not have any solo pictures of me until I went to college. Fast forward, the first day I landed in the US and went to Wal mart, I saw a disposable camera (who remembers those?), and I bought it, my first camera. My family lived thousands of miles away, and I wanted to capture as many moments as I could to share with them. 

Over the years I have accumulated a lot of photography gear, several different actual cameras, lenses. In fact, I started this page as a photography page. But then I was a busy mom of three, everything took a back seat while the children were home. It did not mean that I stopped taking pictures. I am a self-proclaimed paparazzi mom. I followed my children everywhere, I still do. I have tons of pictures of them. 

When they were little, I wanted to be in the picture with them. But there would be nobody around to take my picture. So, I started taking pictures of us using the self-timer feature and or selfies using the camera. I will admit , they are not some of our great photos but I have them. Then came smart phones and the rest is history. No more buying camera roles, no guess work, no developing and printing them, no albums, no snail mailing them to anyone which sometimes would arrive or get lost. Now everything could be shared at the touch of a button. Viola. Happiness, or what they call as "Instant gratification".

When my children became old enough to manage a camera, they became my photographers. And even though they click the camera button, the composition is mine. They are merely button pushers.

When my mother was alive, she was the one who wanted to see pictures of me, my babies. There was no video calling back then. She wanted to be a part of our lives. She did not want to miss their milestones. So, there I went, “picture crazy.” Though she is no longer with us, I feel her presence every time I click that camera button or take that picture.

For me, photography is more than just a hobby; it is my passion and as much as I love to take pictures of things, I love to be in the pictures. May be because I am trying to make up for what I did not have growing up. Heck I even take a picture of me when I am crying, when I am sad, so I have a memory of those moments and I have a lot of them as well.

And while the children mocked me about my passion, they were also grateful that I was capturing all these memories. And I in turn mocked them that if they were to be famous, they would already have so much footage for a documentary about their lives. So next time you see a picture I post, it's not just a photo, there is a story. 

I went back to my archives. The very first time I visited New York city was with my parents. Here is a picture of them I took, standing in front of the Koenig Sphere, when it stood between the twin towers.  

After the events of 9/11, it was recovered from the rubble of ground zero and it now stands at Liberty Park. 

I also found a picture of the famous bridges of New York City  I had taken from top of the the World Trade Canter. Pictured in the first photo are the Manhattan bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. Last week while visiting New York City, we ended up walking on the Brooklyn Bridge. 

And here is a picture of me with my babies . Not a great quality but it tells a story. 

Some of my photography gear. 

Me and my ramblings! What about you? Do you like to take pictures? Do you like to be in the pictures??