The story behind the shutter

Okay. After writing and deleting about an entire page of mindless jabber, I think I’m ready to begin my first blog post.  As this is the initial post on my first-ever blog, perhaps I should lay out my intentions for this digital journal.  When I had the idea to start a blog, my main goals were as such:  write more, read more, connect more.  As for the writing goes, I was always taught that we write best when we write what we know.  So I suppose that is what I’m doing here, writing what I know.  And what I know best is my life, my experiences, my daily doings.  So here it begins.

A few days ago, my laptop sent me an error message that it was running low on storage.  My first thought, “What a pain, I don’t even have that much on here.” After a bit of Googling I found a pie chart which deciphers what uses the most memory on a computer.  A big piece of my MacBook pie was taken up by “Photos.”  Naturally, I opened up iPhoto only to discover the truth behind the pie chart: I have 14,837 photos in my library.  Overwhelmed, I immediately began downsizing; starting with the oldest photos, deleting all duplicates and poor quality images.

Three hours later I came to, and realized I had just been reliving the past six years of my life in photos, through quite a few bits of laughter and tears, might I add.  Since I obtained this MacBook Pro in 2010, my Freshman year of college, I have been adding to this photo library.  Today, in the second month of 2016, I realized I can’t let any more of my life experiences remain hidden in a cluttered iPhoto library.  The stories behind these photos need to be shared. The story of my life needs to be shared.

Sure, I have a Facebook, and I share as many photos as I feel necessary with family and friends.  But that’s just it- just the photos.  Maybe a caption here and there, or a comment or two, but the viewers don’t really have the full story when they just see a photo.  I mean, at least with the photos I take, there’s an entire back-story occurring simultaneously as the shutter shuts and opens again.  And that is the story that I intend to tell here: the tale behind the lens, the story behind the shutter.

I haven’t quite figured out the specifics yet; I will probably just use trial-and-error to figure out the best way to tell these stories.  Perhaps I will add one or two photos with each post; photos that I feel appropriately depict the scene and illustrate the story.  As for the photo I chose for this post:  a simple shot with a blurred sunset background, focused on our Hawaiian Hula Doll, Janice, mounted on the dashboard of (S)Hellboy, Avery’s van.  You see, Janice is actually twins with Jessminda, the Hula Doll belonging to my lovely east-coast lady adventure partner, Emma.  But we’ll get to her later. And the van.  And Avery.  We’ll get to all of that later.  For now, all you need to know is that there is marvelous tale in the works, for all who are desperately itching to hear the inner-most details of my post-graduate adventures.  Let’s face it, most of you aren’t itching to hear this story, but I’m going to tell it anyway, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.