Country Roots
I try to visit my parents every couple of weeks. It's important to me to show my son my childhood home, placed in the rolling hills of the Coast Range, as well as to spend time with his grandparents.
I never really knew my grandparents that well. My maternal grandparents both passed away before I was born, and my paternal grandmother was not really a part of my life except for occasional visits when we dropped by her home in Carslbad, CA. My mother always chose to stay behind, for reasons I did not quite understand at the time. My paternal grandfather lived with us for a time when I was 5. My strongest memories of him are the smell of his tobacco pipe, the way he ate cereal with Pepsi instead of milk, and the time he taught me to play catch by yelling at me to keeping my eyes open while a ball came hurling at my face.
There are other reasons for taking my son out there as well. Growing up on the edge of Eugene, at best a mid-sized city but still a city, I want him to know the countryside as well. He loves bugs, snakes, and spiders, and he always wants to pet or hold worms and beetles. I want him to hold the clay-rich dirt that my father spent years cultivating into usable soil, to smell the deep earthy aroma of the land when it rains, and to feel the breeze that comes in from the ocean and filters through evergreen forests.
The feel, smell, and look of the Oregon countryside are a part of me in a deep, intrinsic way that is difficult to fully express. My upbringing is even reflected in my voice, the drawl when I say certain words like "floral" or "rural.” It’s important to share this with my son in the same way that it will be important to me to play him my favorite songs or read him my favorite books when he’s old enough.
As a photographer who greatly enjoys family photography, it would seem foolish to not photograph my own family, yet I rarely find myself with camera in hand when having these twice-monthly visits to my parent’s house. The main reason for this is that I wish to enjoy the moment; this I believe to be one of the greatest challenges of being “the photographer” in any family or group of friends. When do you put down the camera and just enjoy the moment? Obviously this is not applicable to photoshoots, but rather personal moments, holidays, vacations. Putting the camera down so you can view the world unfiltered can become a challenge, similar to knowing when to put down your phone.
