It's a Family Tradition
...and I'm not speaking of Hank Williams Jr.'s type of family tradition. The role of the "picture taker" in our family started with my grandfather who we call PB. Seen here in this picture, PB was never far from his camera. In fact, we have few pictures with PB actually in the picture. He was always the one taking the pictures of everyone else.
To say PB is eccentric would be putting it mildly. Here is a shot of just one corner of his basement, and there really is no real way to describe the rest of his house unless you visit there yourself. He has travelled all over the world, and in his travels, he has filled his home with things from all the places he's been, and if you ask him what one of the thousands of things are and where it's from, at 83, he can tell you every detail. Another thing that makes PB unique, is that he is the best photographer I've ever known. He's also the smartest person I know, so maybe those two things go hand in hand. His favorite subject to photograph is nature, and he's taken beautiful pictures from all over the world. I've told him that he needs to give his thousands of pictures to National Geographic so they can make a book, but he's not interested in that.
PB always says that pictures have a way of allowing your memory to remember things it would otherwise forget, and I think that's true. When I look back at the hundreds of pictures that I have of our family that PB took I am able to remember so much about those years. We could always count on getting our picture taken when PB was around. We could also always count on viewing slideshows of his hundreds of pictures whenever we were gathered at my great grandmother's house. PB used to put his pictures on slides, and he would put on a slideshow for everyone - like it or not. During those years, most of the time we didn't like it. PB used to take very close up pictures (portrait style) of everyone in the family at every occasion, and then our faces would be larger than life on the screen for everyone to see. As we would moan and groan about what an awful picture it was, his simple response would be, "The camera doesn't lie." Not much of a consolation. 
While we didn't always enjoy having our picture taken (evidenced in this photo of Shen and I), I have to say I'm glad we did. So, I'm going to carry on the family tradition and keep taking pictures of our family. They may not always be the greatest, and the girls might get annoyed with me someday, but I hope they look back and are able to remember some wonderful things about their life and childhood, just like I'm able to. 
To say PB is eccentric would be putting it mildly. Here is a shot of just one corner of his basement, and there really is no real way to describe the rest of his house unless you visit there yourself. He has travelled all over the world, and in his travels, he has filled his home with things from all the places he's been, and if you ask him what one of the thousands of things are and where it's from, at 83, he can tell you every detail. Another thing that makes PB unique, is that he is the best photographer I've ever known. He's also the smartest person I know, so maybe those two things go hand in hand. His favorite subject to photograph is nature, and he's taken beautiful pictures from all over the world. I've told him that he needs to give his thousands of pictures to National Geographic so they can make a book, but he's not interested in that.
PB always says that pictures have a way of allowing your memory to remember things it would otherwise forget, and I think that's true. When I look back at the hundreds of pictures that I have of our family that PB took I am able to remember so much about those years. We could always count on getting our picture taken when PB was around. We could also always count on viewing slideshows of his hundreds of pictures whenever we were gathered at my great grandmother's house. PB used to put his pictures on slides, and he would put on a slideshow for everyone - like it or not. During those years, most of the time we didn't like it. PB used to take very close up pictures (portrait style) of everyone in the family at every occasion, and then our faces would be larger than life on the screen for everyone to see. As we would moan and groan about what an awful picture it was, his simple response would be, "The camera doesn't lie." Not much of a consolation. 
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