Monday, March 16, 2015

Do not shoot the Customs officer

Always know where you are
Port Huron, MI
December 2014
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This is what 6:38 a.m. looks like when you're about to cross the Canada-U.S. border on the way to a much warmer place. When everyone was more or less parked in place while the Customs officers finished up their strategic games of Solitaire, ‎I thought a quick pixel-grab wouldn't be terribly out of line.

I know, I know, I'm now the poster child for the distracted driving generation. Let the debate begin: And let the record show we hadn't budged for 10 minutes. There, I feel better.

All other issues aside, I've fallen into the habit of taking what I like to call placeholder pictures, or photos that aren't necessarily "of" anything in particular, but ones that pinpoint a certain time and place in our day-to-day lives, perhaps milestone moments that we don't otherwise want to forget. They aren't necessarily great compositions, but they fulfill an important storytelling role in the life of my family.

Looking back at them brings me right back to those moments, and at this moment we were sitting quietly in the car and wondering how many of the ‎2,269 kilometres ahead of us we'd have to drive before we could kick off our boots and woolies and swap them for shorts and sandals. The kids were happily bantering in the back, and I was thankful to be in this delightful cocoon of family, a place where life, for a snapshot moment, was as perfect as I'd ever imagined.

Amazing what one otherwise unremarkable picture can do. Do you take placeholder photos? Do tell...

6 comments:

Patti said...

I like that label - "placeholder photos". I do that, although I think I'm more likely to "placeholder write".

This morning, I posted a placeholder. It will forever remind me of a quiet, almost-spring Monday morning, happily content and grateful. Not knowing what exactly the future holds, and that's ok. The mug is a gift from a friend, with a story attached. The sun is streaming in from a backyard that will forever be my favourite. The journal is larger and more lavish than usual - it suits the thoughts in my head these days. The Kindle is full of books of all kinds - fiction, leadership, history, sociology, marketing, scripture.

http://www.runningpastor.blogspot.ca/2015/03/in-my-journal.html

Anonymous said...

Customers are looking for businesses through maps on their smartphones, and taking advantage of
all of the latest technology. What if that site got to where it's at because you hired an SEO () company and they were
SO smart that they had figured out Google's
algorithm and gotten you the spots you paid them to
get you strategically. If you're doing a lot of flash development on your site -
especially the first page - there's nothing for the search
engines to READ.

carmilevy said...

Patti: I like your approach, too. Words, images, any creative output, really...they all serve to reconnect us with moments that would otherwise be lost to history.

Long may we create!

carmilevy said...

Anon: I'm guessing you heard my interview this morning and are none too pleased. That was the entire point: there's so much gaming of the system going on that it'll be nice to return to a world where factual accuracy rules.

What if we didn't need SEO gurus to help businesses get noticed? What if real, solid content led the way?

Imagine that.

Thumper said...

I picked up my phone to take a quick look--do I take placeholder photos?

I do, somewhat. But it seems I mostly take pictures of my cats. And my hair. I need to branch out...

Unknown said...

I too like the term "placeholder photo." On the other hand, when I take photos like yours here, it is generally out of boredom, no deeper motive. I do think a blog is a placeholder for one's life, depending on how it is used. Good to have the memories in any event.