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Writer's pictureSarah M.

Capturing the Beauty of the Mundane


In a world of a thousand pictures what kind of pictures do you have on your camera roll; cute selfies, plates with food, commute landscapes or maybe your dog? This can be quite overwhelming actually. And don't get me wrong I love pictures of dogs and selfies, especially the cute ones but I'm saying there aren't enough regular pictures of...well life, normal everyday life; the bustle of our day-to-day living.

We always take pictures when we're all dolled up at family gatherings, meaningful events and when we are on vacation but we rarely have pictures of making dinner (not just the food), or when the whole family is in the living room each doing their own thing, or maybe even a moment of weakness, where you are sick or not feeling the greatest. We don't even consider taking pictures while we our brushing our teeth. And I do understand that when you don't feel that good you might not want to have your picture taken. All I'm saying is that we should document memories of the most dull and uneventful moments as well; they are part of us too.


These moments don't have to be shared if you don't want to, but they are merely a collection for yourself to enjoy, today, tomorrow or in 2500 years from now by the new species living here.


Pictures can help savor precious moments, they allow us to hold on to them for a lifetime.


I love flipping through old photos, I'll sit on the floor of a antique thrift store going through pictures of people that haven't been with us for over 50+ years not even knowing who they are, just gazing into their eyes, thinking of their back stories and what it might have been like back then. It just fills me with a certain kind of feeling nothing else in this world can do.

I wonder if I might be related or what their struggles were like. I connect with them and think of them, sometimes even days after parting with the picture.

But pictures of my own family are the most precious to me; the people that I have lost and those I never met. Some of these photographs are priceless; they feel unique because you’ve got the only version that will ever exist.


I long to make scarp albums again, to have and to share with others. And you don't need an expensive camera to take a beautiful photo. So many of my favorite moments have been captured with nothing more than my phone (which in my case is a great camera too). Remember that even the most mundane parts of life can be photo-worthy. The challenge is staying alert to those opportunities, despite their ordinariness.


If you ended up with only ten pictures too look at on your death bed how many of those would be selfies, of your food or a landscape?

All I'm saying is in a world where we are filming everything, lets capture moments of reality along side the picture perfect selfies. One does not exclude the other.

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