Juan Ortega Photogaphy

The Photo That Was Never Taken

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• December 15, 2023December 15, 2023
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I was talking with a friend, he is about the same age as I am, 70 years old, and we were talking about life and how fast most of our lives have gone by, already in the past, and about how some friends have already parted to the other life beyond death.

We also were talking about the things we would change if we could go back and change them, but he said, you now know what to change because you made a mistake in the past that helped you in understanding what you know now, in other words, you need to make mistakes to grow in wisdom..
As i pondered on what he said i started to consider on the photographic side of this, which photos are more important to me now than they were 40 years ago, so i went searching for my old negatives and prints and i started to file them depending on their importance and i found out that a lot of the photos that i considered very important back 40  years ago were not as important today and the ones i did not consider important then were very important today, this is when i found out that my family photos were the most important ones and that i should have taken more family photos instead of taking landscape or street photos or photos of events, i only took photos of my famiy in birthdays or graduation or events, but almost non of everyday life, events so trivial back then like having dinner, the kids sleeping or playing, i wish i would’ve had the wisdom to take photos of everyday life of my family, i would consider those photos the most important photos ever, but i didn’t take them so they don’t exist, The rest of the photos that i found that were acording to me at that time very good photos, with al the technicalities necesary for a good photo did not mean a thing, they were just images, i looked at those photos and i remembered what i was thinking at the time, i was trying to come out with a great photo, in reality it was my ego taking the photos, i wanted to be considered a good photographer, i was after the title “Good Photographer” i don’t know how many years i dedicated my time and life hunting that photo, and all because i wanted recognition, now that i see those photos 40 years later i can see how dumb i was, if only i had spent the same time with my family taking photos of them, i would be very happy today, i do have photos of my family of course but not as many as i wish.
So this advice goes to the young amateur photographers out there that are reading all the books on photography and have a ton of equipment, don’t be a dumb ass, if you have a family take photos of your family in everyday life situations, like having breakfast, when your kids are sleeping when heading to school, etc. it may seem unimportant at the moment but believe me when they grow up and you want to remember those times, those photos will be essential to you because even if they were uneventful situations they will become essential in time.