Last stand
London, ON
October 2009
About this photo: It's Thematic's "singles" week. The cool kids are going here to join in. Just because.I have a funny little tradition that involves taking pictures of things just before they're thrown out or recycled. I've been doing it ever since I got my first camera, but it really picked up steam after I transitioned into digital and started shooting everything in sight.
Like so many of my, er, habits, I'm not entirely sure why they evolved the way they did. I guess I discovered that retaining photos of things that were no longer around helped me build a bit of history in my head.
So when I see that picture of our old vacuum waiting to be picked up by the landfill-filler-person, it takes me back to the day we bought it, and how strangely adult my wife and I felt that we were slowly bringing our first home to life. It looked so forlorn on the last morning before it was taken away for good, and I didn't want it to disappear without so much as a trace.
In the end, it's just stuff, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't much covet stuff. People, after all, are far more precious. But the occasional milestone photo may not be such a bad way of reminding me why some people are as precious as they are, and why the journey we've taken together has been so charmed.
I'll go with that rationale for now.
Your turn: Do you take pictures of things before you toss them out? Do tell.
