I'm kinda busy

Reminds me of the time when we were eating dinner at the dining table, and I told the kids to hurry up and finish up the vegetables, and a certain song was playing on the radio. My daughter looks at me, while chewing, "I'm kinda busy" in reference to the Lady Gaga song, Telephone. We all giggled.

On the weekend, my sister wore her wedding dress to Calaway Park for a family gathering and casual photo shoot opportunities.  I have to say it was really amazing and fun to see her driving bumper cars and riding the roller coaster in the wedding dress.  My kids enjoyed the rides too. I took them on the bumpy car ride and I tried taking a nice photo of AJ driving the car. He wouldn't look at the camera and only flatly replied, "Mom can you stop taking pictures because I'm busy driving."

It really struck me about how important it was to just live in the moment and put down that camera, and stop staring at life through a camera lens, and just watch things in real time.  It's one thing to capture memories but when there are just too many photographs, what do you do with all these digital files and piles of photos printed at Costco for 17 cents?

At Calaway Park alone, in the first five minutes alone, her friend a professional photographer (Pirates and Unicorns dot com) indicated that he took 40 shots. I cannot imagine how many photos among the camera crew she hired took. That's different though, but I'm also pointing out that my dad takes way too  many photos; my whole life this has been the most annoying part of any family outing or gathering; everything has to be a group picture, settings are staged and he does not believe in candids. He won't even move to capture the subject better and would even dare to ask the subject to stop the action and turn to face the sun. Seriously? Moments only happen once.

We had just attended my sister's lavish wedding in Calgary.  Despite the very glamorous decor at the church and the amazing Lincoln SUV stretch limo, there was a Carnival flare to the after-ceremony festivities. A candy buffet, mini donuts, butter popcorn, caramel popcorn, face painting, dress-up photo booth and even balloon animals. So that also explains the additional wedding photos at Calaway Park as well. The wedding reception was a very formal and traditional Chinese banquet serving the finest Chinese wedding banquet fare. The only exception to the rule was that she stood her ground and did not serve the dreaded yet much desired traditional shark fin soup, and opted for the alternate seafood soup.

Back to the original point, remember to take photos but not too many. And a note to my dad, stop checking or looking at every shot that was just taken. You'll miss photo opportunities by living in the past (seconds).