Dear Journal: Photo Time

Dear Journal,

I’ve had this overwhelming need lately to capture moments on camera. I was going to say “on film” but there is no film in either my camera or my phone. There are about a million photographable moments during the course of my day, so many places that merit inclusion in my photo archives, and apparently I’ve just now finally noticed them all. So, I’ve been doing my best to take those pictures when I have even a moment’s time, and posting them to my Instagram account (is it a wall, a board, an account, or something else?), for all to see.

Here are some of those photos…

It always fascinates me when photo opportunities come up, but I certainly don’t fancy myself a photographer, or even a “weekend photographer.” I’m just a guy who likes interesting images and sometimes takes pictures of them. Occasionally I fool around with the filters that Instagram provides, but more often than not I just leave them as they originally are. And there are so many others that I see and don’t take, either because of time constraints or because I can’t seem to get the right angle at the time. Those I store away for later.

There was this old abandoned diner in Poland that I always wanted to photograph. It had just the right touch of old history, with a large window in the front that had DINER painted on its glass, and a little table underneath that sign, with two dusty chairs underneath it, as if its occupants had just stepped out for a moment. But every time I passed I thought, “that was probably forty years since they got up, and they’ll never return.” Then one day the diner was gone, demolished, all that history erased by a bulldozer. And I missed the photo opportunity that had presented itself so many times before.

That’s when I decided not to let other moments pass, and I’m glad I did.

Sam