What is (in) a Photograph?

Sorry for being missing in action over the last couple of weeks. Here I was mailing out package after package for my little business, and before I knew it, it was time for The Nutcracker again. My daughter has been in the local production of this show every year since she was 6 years old. I have been helping and volunteering for the same amount of years. I have enjoyed doing the make-up for the parrots, clowns, and mice.

 

 Unfortunately I hardly got any pictures this year. I only took a couple of hassled shots on my cell phone. This makes me very sad. A new picture rule kept me from taking photos. I didn't get a single photo of the clowns in costume.

 

 ALL the pictures you see in this post are recycled shots from previous years...

 

 

 

What is a photo? Wikipedia defines the word in the following manner:

A photograph or photo is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of what the human eye would see. The process and practice of creating photographs is called photography. The word "photograph" was coined in 1839 by Sir John Herschel and is based on the Greek φῶς (phos), meaning "light", and γραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light".^[1]

 

 

Parent volunteer putting Clown Make-up on for 2010 Nutcracker production

 

Excitement of  being a First Time Clown from 2009

Ready to Clown around on stage 2010

 

I like that definition - A drawing with light. Yet, I think a photograph is so much more. Photos help us remember all the small details. Details you may have forgotten.You can go back to it any time. Photos help us document the passage of time and show us how much our children have grown and changed.

 

I love the clowns. They are my favorite part of The Nutcracker. They make the audience laugh so hard and forget about the stress and hassles this busy time of year. Year after year they steal the audience's heart. I see little kids point their fingers at my daughter when she leaves with her make-up on. "Look, Mom! There is a clown..."

 

Clowns 2010

Releasing the Clowns 2011

The picture below is the only photo I took of my little clown this year. There are no other photos of the clowns since the professional photographers who were allowed to take photos this year didn't take any pictures of the clowns. Maybe they didn't have time. Or maybe the clowns didn't seem important.

All I know is that I am glad to have my little gallery of precious drawings with light from previous years.

  A photo is a memory that nobody can take away from you...