"Carpe..." (Family Photography)

The pictures speak, ya know? Reminds me of that scene in Dead Poet's Society when Mr Keating is showing the boys pictures of previous students and reminding them that each of those pictures was a person, living his own life, thinking his own thoughts.

Sometimes as I ride my scooter around town I get to thinking that everybody on the street is living his life, everybody in a car is living her life, even the mailman is living his own life! Maybe you've already realized this, but there are millions of lives happening every second right here--in America! It's pretty stunning.

And every second a part of every person's life just went by. In photographs, I get to help capture that moment, record it a little bit like it was, and my record can potentially last forever. That means the moments  that I see in my lens maintain a small part of a story of a life. A tiny, itsy-bitsy portion of a life. And it's not that important.

Right now.

But how about in ten years, or fifty years when this mother's grandchildren look back at this image? Maybe the girl notices that she has her grandmother's red hair (I know, I know: it's black and white, but you still know she has red hair!) or the boy sees that his little brother looks just like his uncle. At some point this image may share the moment and it may make a connection to the past that shapes the future! Maybe the kid will see his potential and make some kind of decision to do choose to do something worthwhile in his life, to seize opportunity and make a life! Well, I'd like to think so, anyway.

Still, maybe he'll hear it whispering: Carpe...

Nikon D700,  70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens @ 98mm, f/5.0, 1/125s, ISO 500.