Creating and Recording Memories. That is what it is all about!

September 6, 2013 Inspiration, Just for fun, Leica, News 58

Creating and Recording Memories. That is what it is all about!

By Steve Huff

Memories…ahhh yes, the whole reason I started to pick up a camera in the first place back when I was 9. I always had the desire to snap the shutter of a camera to freeze that one moment in time…a moment that when snapped and forever captured turns into a time machine that can take you back to that brief moment just by looking at it. That 1/250th second out of our lives that seems like nothing but can mean so much more. Let’s face it, Photography has been a huge part of many of our lives since we were children. Remember when you were small and your parents took out their film camera at a family event, vacation or even “just because”?  My Mother has a trunk full of old photo prints from when I was little and every now and again I will look through them to remember the times that have long been forgotten. Until I see the photo of course. Then that memory comes back quite vividly.

I have thousands..tens of thousands of photos on hard drives (yes, they are backed up) and looking through them makes my mind go on sensory overload as I flip through, each one taking me back in time to an exact moment in time..a memory. A recorded part of my history. When you think about it, and I mean REALLY think about it, that is pretty magical.

As I look back over the thousands and thousands of photos on my hard drives, even shots I took 15 years ago before this website was even a thought in my head, I realize once again how powerful and special photography can be for your own well-being and yes, even happiness.

I decided to write this tiny post just to remind everyone that we have one life on this earth and it goes by FAST. By recording moments of our life these memories will be around for our future generations to see, and remember and to even learn about. I see so many going through life who just breeze through life as they are bored with nothing to do. I have always been a fan of living life to the fullest, doing what you want, making your dreams come true and getting out there and enjoying the time we have here on this planet we call earth. It’s all a learning experience and what we do with our time here will do more for us than most know or realize. We have one go round here in this life, don’t forget that and always live life with NO REGRETS. Yep, those two words can actually improve your life. NO REGRETS.

Take a camera with you my friends. Photograph your family, your friends, your life and all of those moments that would be lost without doing so.

Make MEMORIES as they are made to be remembered!

I have posted some photos I snapped over the past years just to show that without these, I would have most likely forgot about these moments and times in my life.

A shot from 2005 of my Son Brandon holding his pet rats. A week later his face was covered with ringworm from these same rats. Something we now laugh about. But seeing this photo reminds me of this day. He was so happy and excited about his new pets. If I did not snap this then this memory may have been blurred in my mind or not there at all. Taking photos of your life, family and special moments is very important in my opinion and something we should all do. Taken with a 5D and 50 1.4 

5dbrandonrats

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and the ringworm that came from the pet rats…

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The same year, 2005. Brandon’s face was covered with a ringwork infection we covered our faces and went out for halloween as horror killers 🙂 That is me as Michael Myers. 5D and 50 1.4 again.

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My son’s stepbrother Kyle back in the day. I remember calling him “Scuba Pete” as he was getting ready to swim in his pool. Yes, this is how he went swimming that day and what you do not see is the flippers on his feet:) Today he is a Pilot and would probably laugh seeing this. Taken with a 5D and 85L

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My teacup poodle “winnie” – lost her in my divorce 4 1/2 years ago but she is still around and from what I hear, acts like a mean old woman.

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My old buddy Scrubby who passed away a couple months ago. He was looking pretty sharp here 🙂 In my mind I remembered him from his last days as that is how I saw him for  the past year. By looking at these I can remember how good he looked in his prime. 

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My cats Tater and Tails. Amazing and the most sweetest cats EVER. Canon 1Ds and 85 1.8 – They are now gone but their memory remains thanks to the many images I took of them.

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Me with some hair! Nikon D300 in hand with a Zeiss Planar

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Here I am with my Leica M8 inside the bathroom of the “House of Blues” quite a few years ago. Probably with a 35 cron.

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My 2003 shot of my old Sphinx cat “Tails”. Taken with an Olympus E1 (YES! the OLD E1) with 50 Macro. Great camera and lens back then. Today you can buy an E1 for $150, back then it was $1500 and touted as Canon 1ds quality. 

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Leica M7 and 35 Lux – My Nephew John stocking up on hot dogs before attempting a hot dog eating challenge that we had at my house.

The Auctioneer from 2009 – Olympus E-PL1 and 17 2.8  – Southern Rural Illinois

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My son with Kyle hanging out at Mission Beach in San Diego  – shot with the Fuji S5 Pro – 2007 – I remember loving that S5 Pro and now I can see why. I preffered it to the D300 I also had at the same time due to the colors. While it used a Nikon D200 body, and was slow (hmm, Fuji is still trying to figure out the speed thing) it had some gorgeous files. 

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S5 Pro 2007

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The night after my really bad car accident. Fresh from the scene after being cleaned up from the paramedics.

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Brandon with his pet Parakeet in 2008 or 2009 – shot on film with a G2

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A quick snapshot from my Vegas weekend with a few readers of the site, hanging out in the “Real World” suite at the Palms. Sony NEX-7 with 24 1.8

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Lifelong friend Mike deciding what he wants – oreo or nutter butters – Fuji X-Pro 1

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Taking my son on the Polar Express – shot with the original Nikon D2h at ISO 1600 – pretty noisy 🙂 But man was he excited as he really believed we were headed for the North Pole.

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Easter Time – Olympus E-P3 with 12-60

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Learning to drive at an early age. I think my Mom snapped this one as she was the one who always let him drive without me knowing about it 🙂

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A birds nest outside of my house with babies inside. Had to snap this one with my Leica.

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My album cover shot taken with the M9 and 50 Noct. One goal in life I had and I accomplished it and moved on to the next goal. 

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Leica M8 and Zeiss 50 1.5 Sonnar – Brandon with “Mini”  who was VERY old here.

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My Mother in 2008 shot with the M8 and 90 Cron at f/2.8

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Brandon and his new Stingray Re-Issue  – Leica M8 and 50 Noctilux f/1 – 2007 – Great bike to pop wheelies on! I may have ridden this thing more than him!

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Shot with an M7 and Tri-X – My son and Nephew chilling out at disneyland

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Brandon and Kyle – M8 and Zeiss 50 Sonnar – 2009. Brandon was rocking the hairdo for sure!

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Speaking of hairdo’s..Brandon with the M9 and 50 Lux at 1.4 – I remember asking him if I could hair spray his hair up so he looked like a Troll doll. He had fun doing it and I shot about 10 shots that day. 

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Taken with the Epson RD-1 and the Voigtlander 35 2.5 PII pancake lens. 

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He had a Nikon D90 around his neck and this one was shot with film, Medium Format. I think on a Bronica – 2009

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More Mission Beach with the S5 Pro – 2007

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S5 pro with Zeiss 50 1.4 manual focus. 2007 must have been my Fuji S5 year 🙂 I was NOT doing this website yet but was on all of the forums quite often getting attacked for saying the S5 was better than the D200 🙂

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Like I said, I have TENS OF THOUSANDS of photos taken over the past 15 years or so, many in folders that are for camera reviews and some, maybe 4000 or so that are all personal photos of family, friends and life experiences. I have so many that I could sit down when I am 80 and spend two hours a day remembering what went on in my life.

It is now 2013 and I am on to the next phase of memory making, the 2nd phase of my life where I expect to take tens of thousands of photos once again.

So pull out those cameras and USE THEM. That is what they are for. It’s much more fun to use them when we are not obsessing about specs, ISO noise and things that really do not even matter in the real world of photography. Just gran it, go, and shoot! Have fun and have a GREAT weekend.

Steve

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58 Comments

  2. When I was a young photographer I didn’t like simle pictures, as family portraits. AS I grow and got my own family I understood the everything in life, at least for me, is about memories.

  4. Thanks for taking us down memory lane with you Steve, some beautiful memories and stories you’ve captured there.

  8. Dear Steve ,

    Thank you for sharing your time capsule with us ….

    Cant agree more with the title of this Posting.
    its truly are what photography its all about and through these photos you share over time, i felt like i just go to your time capsule fill with your memories.
    One thing for sure time has fly and how brandon and john has grown so fast !!!!
    that is why i never stop taking pictures of my kids….

    just wondering, the picture when you got the accident, is it the one you travel with your MP and knock your head with it. (i remember reading one of your posting about MP and mentioned about the accident).

    I have been reading your site since the old hosting of your website, been reading your posting as well as daily inspiration post and it has given me lots of inspiration …..

    Regards,
    Giri

    here i would like to share my links:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/girindratundjung/
    http://500px.com/Girbow

  9. Dear Steve,
    Do you Knowles this word of Martine Franck :
    “Une photographie, c’est un fragment de temps qui ne reviendra pas”
    “A picture is a fragment of time which never come back”

  11. I realise now that I’d always loved snapping pictures, documenting, To my surprise many friends that I’ve reconnected with on Facebook or other forms of social media remember me always having a camera with me. However I think my real love affair with cameras started when my son was born in Feb 2011. At the time I had an LX3 which, I now realise, I never really knew how to use properly.

    After Milo was born I invested in a white E-PL2 with a kit lens. Then came the Panny 20 1.7 and a VF2. I considered both to be a big extravagance but bit the bullet and parted with the cash. Since then and thanks in no small part to your amazing blog, I’ve owned various cameras but I now use an OM-D with a multitude of great lenses, an X100s and an X-E1. Since Milo’s birth I’ve taken usually hundreds of photos a day of everything from landscapes & architecture to street scenes and portraits.

    I feel so fortunate now to have such a detailed record of the last two and a half years and reading this post really reflects that. As my skills have developed I often go back to the earlier photos and give them a good scrub in Lightroom. I love that it’s so easy to get wrapped up again in the events that happened on a certain day. Thanks so much for the encouragement and the inspiration that your blog brings.

  12. Great article! This made me flip back through some of my old photos too.

    And yes – you have owned a LOT of cameras!

    The Fuji S5 photos are great, and the Epson photo too! The G2 shots make me realize how I should spend more time shooting color film.

    The D2h @1600 ISO shows us how far low-light ability has come! Maybe someday in the future we’ll be gawking at how noisy our 51,200 ISO shots looked back in 2013.

    But most importantly, this is a good reminder that photos are meant for looking at!

  14. Dear Steve, cannot agree more. that’s why the handphone camera is being used more and more. Along this line, the number of pictures being posted by daily inspiration is always short of my expectation.

    Well done to bring the true meaning of what photography is about- a place in time of our memory.

    lets not shot a tree with different aperture. My consideration to take a picture or not is to just think whether I can take the same picture tomorrow. If yes, I will not take the shot. if not, like in the case of all family photo, street photo, the shot is worth taking, irrespective of how good or how bad my technique is.

    Best regards

  15. Hi Steve,
    Probably your best post ever. Just reminds that photography is not about the gear. It is all about memories. Looking forward to more such stories.

    I am glad you now consider your blog (with all the readers) family enough to share some of your deeply personal moments.

    Cheers,
    Mo

  18. Steve – those are some great memories of yours (and excellently recorded) – I appreciate you share these moments with us. For me personally it does show me a mirror where I can see myself ‘over-geeking’ and ‘over-geering’ photography (in particular with my ‘film only’ approach) and missing some really nice and memorable events of people close to me. I need to change that right away. Thank you.

  19. I was thinking after reading your post, Steve, that it would be strange to have no photographs of past events in your life – quite frightening in some ways.

    I love reading your thoughts on life and photography, and is the reason I have followed your site for some years – your enthusiasm is very infectious.

    Great to see Brandon, Scrubby in his prime, and those amazing cats. Not so sure about the picture of you covered in blood though, but I suppose it is part of life’s rich tapestry – looks like a nasty accident.

  21. Ah memories. So priceless! Is there anything more valuable in life, especially as we get older??

    I use to look at photos as a way of preserving cherished memories. I may be in the minority here, but I don’t really anymore. I’ve found (especially in recent years) that I really prefer VIDEO, or a series of video ‘snip-its’ instead (please don’t ‘overshoot’ video!!) My camera stills have instead become my ‘creative or artistic’ outlet.

    At Christmas or on other special occasions I love popping in a DVD of old home movies and just letting it play in the background as we chat, unwrap gifts, etc. Much more convenient (albeit a different experience) than looking through a photo album or watching a slide-show – but one that really appeals to me.

    Some people may cherish old family photos. Others may cherish those classic home videos. Either way though, what a great time we live in – and what a great thing today’s cameras have given us – the ability to shoot stills OR video!

  22. Wow! fantastic collection of images Steve. You are right, it is all about recording memories. My pop has kept a writing journal for over fifty years, but for me the photographic one tells all. As close to a time machine as one can get.

  23. Steve, have you ever thought about making a big coffee table book with all of these wonderful memories? Somehow it doesn’t feel as permanent when they only exist in the digital realm.

  25. Nice article, but in one respect I was disappointed. You showed many photos of your son (including an unflattering one of him with ringworm), but where are your mom’s photos of cute little eight-year-old Stevie Huff with plenty of wool on his dome? I dare you to show us some of those!
    Raylo

  26. thanks for sharing these Family Photos of yours…very inspiring….remind me to look again my old families Photos…

  27. Steve
    Love the look of the s5 photos!
    My mother in law is a pro shooter and still misses her s- series bodies, especially for skin tones. She still hasn’t warmed up to the modern Nikon bodies- spends much longer in post to get the look she’s after.

  28. Thanks, Steve. Really generous of you to share – and really generous of Brandon over the years to let himself be shared!! Hope you have a really good storage system for all these beautiful shots.

  30. Like this article made me go back through my several thousand pictures and print out a couple now have them up on my wall, Thanks for jogging my memory. Love my Fuji X100. Always checking and love your site Steve.

  32. This is the kind of of article that really keep me going back to your site again and again Steve. It’s personal , like reading a journal or diary sometimes. Nowadays it becomes an addiction, one after I wake up in the morning, during the day, and just before I get to bed. Yes, after all it’s all about memories, not some fancy cameras. Thank you Steve for keeping your site this way

  36. I should add that this post was quite timely. I found out today that an old high school friend had died at 46. We hadn’t been in touch for nearly 30 years. However, when I heard about it, and saw an old high school photo of him, a flood of memories came roaring back. I found myself even getting emotional about it. Simply remembering him wasn’t enough, the photo is what did it. And, as my mortality becomes more of a reality as I near 50, these photos hold so much more meaning to me. Thanks for the post, Steve!

  37. I actually started deleting a lot of my photos. I found I took so many in the past, there was too much “noise” around the photos I really cared about. I also used to take too damn many. It was the, “take 1000 shots and you’re bound to get a few good ones” approach. (The downside of digital, if you will) Now I shoot much differently, I visualize, and wait. If I get it, great, if I don’t, no biggie. I find that this not only allows me to capture much better moments, it also allows me to actually be IN the moment and enjoy it more. Before I would be too busy snapping away, missing the whole point of why I am even there, or what I’m really trying to achieve. Like you said, Steve. It’s all about the memories.

  39. Sooooo many inspirational posters in that cat picture, I love it!

    “Do you hair me?”

    “18 lives between us – and no hair – how’s your day?”

    “We’re nudists and you’re stupid, we can put on sweaters – what’s you’re excuse?”

    “Got scrotum?”

  41. Thank you Steve, for opening a window to such wonderful and beautiful moments.
    Intimate , special, and appreciated.

  42. Great memories and wonderful to see as after following your website for some years I feel like I know the family.
    You have a great talent and it is a credit to that you have been able to inspire others.
    Keep up the great work.

  45. As a guy, I think there are only 3 good looking guys to me. David Beckham, Brad Pitt, George Cloony, and now the Steve Huff from 2005 with hair. Yeah, so still 3 guys.

    Thanks for sharing your private photos of your life!

  46. Thanks Steve for letting us in and sharing your memories. Really nice to see how things have progressed.

  48. Great article Steeve. You are right…i started shooting for 15 years now but not as much from the moment i built a family…only in the first year of my son i press the shutter about ten thousand times !!!! And it is just the beginning, wouaw !!!! Long life to you and your family, have fun with photography. Mikael a french fan.

  50. I love this post. I’ve seen people use the word “snapshot” as a criticism, but there’s an intimacy and an emotional side to a snapshot that you just can’t fully recreate in a studio no matter how big your sensor or how elaborate your lighting rig.

  52. Steve, love pictures of your cats -Tater and Tails; didn’t see them in any reviews. Are there more pictures of them anywhere?
    I want to keep a Sphynx cat at some point but will have to wait until I retire. It won’t be nice to leave them alone all day.

  53. You’ve got a great attitude, Steve. I actually spend too little time reviewing the photos I took in the past. The problem is that I have so many that I don’t know where to start. Perhaps it is time to start printing off some of my best shots and making an annual album. 🙂

    • This can become a problem for a lot of us with digital capture…it’s too easy to fire off hundreds of images, all of which are pretty darn good. It takes a lot of time and discipline to cull through all of those shots – week after week, month after month, year after year – separating the good from the really good from the most excellent. Then, like you said, what to do with them? Prints? Photo Book? Digital movies or slides shows? It’s a lot of work to get them done right.

  54. Thanks for sharing Steve, couple of comments:

    Nice Proof that you’ve actually had DSLR’s – I know this from your old site years ago, but I forgot.
    RingWorms – not a good look 🙂
    The 2003 shot of the old Sphinx cat “Tails” – look eery! cool shot!
    A full frame Epson RD-1 would be incredible. I like the way the lcd could be hidden.

  56. I just love looking at these photos, Steve. Your story, your photographic skills, and your editing all add up to something beautiful.

    “Time means nothing when it is clicked off by little wheels”. – William Faulkner

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