First picture I took in Austria
When we moved here, I committed, to myself and to my family and friends, that I was going to thoroughly document this experience. Partly to keep a record of what this experience has truly been like (because memories are so mercurial and can so easily be tainted and skewed) and partly to keep everyone at home up to date with what we were up to over here. For the grandparents and aunts and uncles in particular, the stories have been nice, but I think they mostly wanted the pictures. Every day that we’ve been here, I’ve taken pictures. And every day that we’ve been here, I’ve emailed and posted some subset of those pictures. I try to make sure they see at least one picture of each of the boys each day, and most days there are many, many pictures of our adventures. (I think it’s worst when we travel — I’ve been known to send home 100 pictures or more on busy, photo-friendly travel days.)And it’s great. In addition to this blog, I have an incredibly detailed photo record of our time here. Looking back through the pictures is wonderful — although I can still imagine how little B and Liam were when we arrived here, the pictures really remind me of how much they’ve changed. My mom has made a great slide show on her computer out of her favorite pictures, and I’ve filled up more than one relative’s gmail with tons of picture files.As we’ve gone along, this has added up to A LOT of pictures. In fact, just since I got my iPhone (which was about a month after we moved here — and it immediately took over as my main photography tool), I have taken over 34,000 pictures. 34,000, in just over 2 years. They all get backed up onto my computer, and many of them get sent home to my family. Then, in the interest of saving space, most get deleted off of my phone, but I have kept a “highlight” reel of my favorite ones. The problem is, out of 34,000 pictures, even a selection of favorites becomes HUGE. I generally hover at about 3,000 full-sized images on my phone, which equals about half the memory I have on my phone. And the only way I keep the count “down” to 3,000-ish is by constantly culling out older pictures to make space for new ones. To say that my phone is more camera and storage device than anything else is not at all an exaggeration.
Most recent picture, taken this morning
Just this morning, I went through my favorite pictures and deleted another 200, just because I’ve been frustrated lately with not having the space to take pictures when I want to. (And if I can’t take pictures when I want to, holding on to the old ones seems like more of a burden than a blessing.)I think it might be time for a bigger phone. And I may need to rethink my criteria for my “favorites”. We’ve got a lot of travelling to do yet on this adventure, and there will be many more pictures to come.