Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Precious Moments

It may come as a surprise to my readers that when I first started this blog some 3 or 4 years ago, I wasn’t at all interested in photography. I have now got thousands of photos and since I don’t have an electronic filing system, it is hard to find that “needle in a haystack” photo that I know would be perfect for a photo challenge. So today, I decided I would start from the back of my digital catalogue to select photos for the Precious Moments challenge. All but one of the photos are family snaps (including some images of family members that are now deceased). Where appropriate, I have included privacy screens (I’ve drawn in sunglasses) to protect the identity of the living. Let’s get started.

A dog’s life.

Elsa and the boys.
Alice
Tess

Oscar, the canary, is invited to lunch. My house was messy then and is still messy now.

Mother and son holiday. A lifetime is never enough.

Apparently some sweet moments are boring. We only made it half way up to Australia’s highest peak.

“What do mean there are no toilets on this mountain?“

These are the precious moments they will remember long after we are gone.

On the walk to Mt Kosciuszko.

Grandma knows how to keep the boys occupied. Cousin S looks on. Youngest son cuts himself flicking paint with the palette knife. He didn’t seem to notice when he flicked blood all over his painting. We didn’t notice at first either. That’s my boy.

And what about those end-of-year school assemblies? So precious.

Notice eldest son wears totally inappropriate T-shirt to his brother’s (Anglican) school. That’s my boy. The ecologist.

In the fullness of time, I started my blog and so began my writing and photography journey. It has been an absolute pleasure to share my interests and photos with you. I want to thank my readers from the bottom of my heart for your support and enthusiasm. I also want to thank Patti, Amy, Tina and Ann-Christine for all the hard work they put into hosting the Lens-Artists challenges.

Now for one last photo. My True Love took this photo of the beautiful flame robin in Namadgi National Park. The photo was taken a month before much of the park was consumed by fire earlier this year. As 2020 has shown us, we should not take anything for granted. Treasure every moment.

Stay safe, everyone.

Sending you a virtual hug and all the best for 2021.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

66 thoughts on “My Preciouses”

  1. Lovely photos Tracy. Would you believe I have just being doing something similar with the same thoughts about having photos all over the place! I am planning on doing a story board with positive photos from different times in my life but with more of a focus on achievements. It is not an ego thing – it is a reminder to myself that I HAVE done some useful things in my life for those days when I don’t believe it!

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    1. That’s a lovely idea, Rainee. I imagine you will learn a lot about yourself and about empowerment. I wonder if you will find, like I did, that the things we thought we failed, are actually our greatest achievements?
      Btw, I’m incredibly impressed with your work with U3A.

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  2. A lovely stroll through your memories Tracy, so happy that our challenge has given you an opportunity to share your thoughts and photography – we love seeing them! How poignant your closing image of the park – but a wonderful example of how important small moments can become as time marches on! (and PS. loved the blood spattered painting moment LOL)

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    1. Thank you, Tina. Photography has changed the course of world events in the past. I agree that the small moments are no less powerful in their own way. I’m not sure how I feel about how easy it is to alter images these days. I think It poses great challenges ahead. Perhaps this is a question for the lens-artists? 🙂
      PS. The blood splatter was a funny moment but also disconcerting.

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      1. I agree, the ease of adding a different sunset or changing heads between pictures makes the photographer’s job much easier but also challenging ethically. One never knows what to believe these days!

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  6. I enjoyed reading about and seeing your family! It’s hard to imagine with bloggers are like outside of blog world. I have continued to organize my photos better over the years. I have always taken hundreds and hundreds of photos, even with my little pocket camera. Now it’s thousands! I got a little storage drive so I could clear out my laptop which filled up. Photos are awesome and bring back sweet memories. Thank you for your post! 🤗

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, Lisa. My family are great and I love them dearly. We may all be similarly afflicted y the disorganisation gene though. Or maybe they haven’t had the best teacher. 🙂

      Sounds like you have a system that works for you. That’s very encouraging. I confess I’m a little intimidated by how organised most bloggers appear to be and unconvinced that I could achieve what you’ve done. Still I have a heap very awful photos and clearing them out would be a start. 🙂

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      1. Well… my computer got full so I had to buy a back up storage and move thousands of photos. And then my blog was getting full! So Sunday I deleted some old blog posts and photos. That or pay more money and I’m not paying more money! I will say this: I love to organize things. I HATE to clean things. 😂

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      3. Haha… Good luck with that! When I retired 10 years ago my first aim was to go through my photo archives and delete all the bad/duplicate images (after all, who needs a dozen photos of the same leaf). I have managed three folders so far. I’d have to stop taking new photos for at least a year to make any headway.

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    1. Thank you, Martha. It keeps me off the streets and out of the pantry. 🙂 You mean my front and back yard? We make the most of our lovely small city. We are very fortunate, although you must be getting sick of seeing the same things over and over.

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      1. I write the same things over and over. 🙂 You forget that I’m a person who walks the same mile nearly every day and rides a stationary bike in the spare room. I’m not easily bored and when it comes to nature, nothing is the same twice. I love your photos. I don’t notice any repetition. ❤

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  8. That last photo is such an “Ah-hh” moment. A beautiful snap. My husband had me organize his photos (did you know ‘organize’ is my middle name?), and now rarely looks at them. Ugh.

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  12. Your son’s a true artist, bleeding for his art. 😉 Next time though maybe just don’t give him a palette knife but stay with the brushes.
    Wonderful collection of photos, Tracy! Loved spotting Oscar on the table – it reminded me of my grandma who also had a canary.
    And very true observation: if this last year has taught us something, it’s not to take anything for granted.

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  13. Thank you for combing through your archives to share with us these very precious moments. I know that is so time-consuming, especially when we have to pause every so often to admire or gawk or take stock of a memory.

    Strangely, I was having a bit of a panic last night because my google photos goes only as far back as 2016 – I was having a terrible time figuring out how I stored my photos before then. Apparently on CD Rom. Do we even have a CD Rom reader in the house anymore?!!!

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    1. I did a lot of gawking, Ju-Lyn. 🙂
      Take those CD Roms to one of those computer techie places, Ju-Lyn. Hopefully they’ll still have a couple of CD Rom readers and they can transfer them to a USB for you. Hopefully. I’m missing a lot of photos too. Goodness knows where they are. Probably stuck on old digital cameras with files that are no longer supported.

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      1. I seem to be gawking a great deal these days as well, Tracy, so I know how you feel.

        What a great idea – I will hunt down a computer shop before it is too late. I love how much easier our lives are with the evolution of tech, but this rapid obsolescence is just a little inconvenient..

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      4. Thank you, Ju-Lyn. I’m not much of a traveller. I’m ashamed to say that I am very much a small town gal. I’ve only done one big trip o/s pre-children which also means pre-digital cameras. Film processing was so expensive then that we rationed our shots. So, I’ll pass this time and live vicariously through other’s photos.

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  17. Well done, Tracy – and you have a beautiful family. I should have known of course – to produce a lovely mum like you, it takes a lovely family to do it ;-D. The mountain boys and the painting session brought me smiles, and the last photo, with your precious words, went straight to my heart. Let’s hope the flame robin made it through the fires. ♥ I am so glad you are out there – far away but still near.

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  19. A lovely gallery of images Tracy. I do love no. 1 son’s t-shirt — and his sense of humour. I’m slightly reassured reading your post and the comments that I’m not alone in my photographic disarray.

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  21. Tracy, thank you for a peek into your family’s life, indeed very precious. Your sons are adorable and independent. And very good artists! I didn’t realize you’d only been blogging a relatively short time as you seem very skilled at mastering all the techie-digi aspects that still confound me. And your photography always intrigues me. So sad that the home of the beautiful flame robin is now ashes. Our world has been torn asunder by politics, pandemic, and environmental devastation all over the globe. When will we ever learn that these gifts are not ours to destroy? Your photos remind us of what we should protect at all costs: family and the natural wonders of the world.

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    1. My family are a fine bunch, Sharon. I’m very proud of them. They did have quite a bit of help from their grandmother to paint that marlin. Grandmas are good at fixing when things go wrong. You know how it is. 🙂
      I do think the recovery from the pandemic will be just the start of the difficult times ahead. Unfortunately those misfortunes are not limited to humankind. It is a good thing that Covid has spared most young people (if not their parents), because they have the fight of their lives ahead of them.

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  22. I love all your precious moments, including the very poignant last photo. Interesting how photography evolved for you. It did for me to. My husband used to be the photographer in the family… now it’s me!

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    1. Thank you, Linda Photography opens up a whole new world. I think once you blog the photographic stories take shape in your mind when you’re out and about. When your partner doesn’t blog, he/she often can’t see the sense in taking some photos.

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  23. An untidy mind, a messy house, go together don’t they? Main thing is lots of love ❤️ nice to see your family being themselves. I used to take photos of my grandchildren when they were small, just being natural, so they didn’t put on the fake smile. Lots of wonderful memories.

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  24. It is funny how photography finds us and we get drawn in.my experiences was similar. I didn’t ibtend photography to be a prominent topic on my blog but it hapoened anyway. I am glad it did. Looks like some treasured memories here. Have a wonderful Xmas.
    Amanda

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