Capturing memories for posterity
AS the year comes to a close with many holidays and opportunities for get-togethers, it’s also a wonderful time to capture those special moments. Take photos and videos. Capture what you can. In this age of social media we take too many photographs of just about anything and everything — from the food and drink that we enjoy to videoing our feet walking or running to our favourite spots. It’s indeed a lot of fun to do these things and share them with family and friends on social media.
Now let’s take it a step further. Let’s compose the story that you want to tell by putting it all together. You can translate photos and videos into something precious like a photobook or a video album. Learn to be creative on the computer or smartphone, which works wonderfully with apps that you can download from the Internet. We are, after all, encouraged to learn something new every day so that our mind doesn’t get idle. What better time than now to do this?
Our experiences and memories often have added value when we look back and reminisce.
PersOnaL COLLeCtiOn OF FLasH CarDs
Collecting and building memories is precious and meaningful in more ways than one. I find much joy in looking at old photographs of my late parents - those sepia-toned photos, some of which have wavy borders and curly corners. The older photos often come in albums with black sugar paper and silver corners. The ones from the 1960s and ‘70s are often in glue backing with plastic overlay. From the ‘80s onwards, photos were mostly slipped into little pockets of an album.
When I started trifling with photography, I captured and printed thousand of images. Never in my life did I imagine that it would came in handy after my eldest son, Omar, was born. He learnt differently because he is physically and mentally delayed. So we had to teach him in a different way too.
Fortunately, he recognised who his parents were. But at a certain age, we had to put together photographs of his siblings in an album and show it to him every day so that he could not only recognise them but call their names in his own special sound. Omar is non-verbal but can make sounds.
We slowly built up the album to include his favourite things — a red ball, his shoes, the car, his little towel, cup and plate. As the years went by, there were a few more albums for him which helped with his cognitive ability and strengthened his memory. It became his personal collection of flash cards.
I also took photographs of all of Omar’s milestones because he didn’t develop like other children did. As my other children came along, I realised that they develop quite differently — and at their own pace. The books that I read served only as a guide, but there was nothing more enthralling than charting your children’s development. Comparing them to the books was somewhat satisfying. In some instances, I found that they were ahead of the curve. In others, they were a bit behind and we worked on that.
gOOD OLD DaYs
A time came when I left my camera on the side. With a growing family and having to meet the needs of home and career, there was a void in photo-taking. Carrying a camera around became cumbersome. This was before the advent of smartphones.
Then my parents became ill. I wasn’t in the mood to take photos. It rarely ever crossed my mind. I left it to the younger members of the family to do it. Till today, I don’t know what happened to the photos that they took. Either they never got printed or duplicates were never made.
Many years after my parents died, I found myself looking for those old photos to remember them as they were in their prime — young, healthy and happy. I’m now at the age that they were when I was young, and I wonder if I’m anything like them. I can only rely on what my relatives tell me.
Learning from this, I now snap lots of photos and organise them by events and trips. If there’s anything for me to leave for my children, it will be memories of what we did together.
This is something you can do with any of your loved ones, especially your parents. Video tape moments and conversations. The time will come when these will be your link to the good old days. I take to heart this saying: Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realise they were the big things.