What is a pic?

"It's not how the picture looks, it's how the moment made you feel."

--Lisa Barnes

Lisa enjoys pictures.  She often lies in bed looking at pictures.  She'll smile and even laugh.  Friends call her the historian of the group.  We have a few pieces of art but the majority of pictures hung on our walls are pictures Lisa took.  Pictures that she took with her phone!  Notice the picture above is slightly crooked, its from her phone. She is a constant collage creator.  She is an avid Facebook poster.  Lisa's pictures are reminders.

To be fair, my wife taught me this. Every picture is a moment that she decided to capture a feeling.  When she takes pictures she also takes mental notes.  What might look like an ordinary picture may have many feelings attached.  She tries to make a mental memory of her emotions that the picture can recall.  She does this with objects also.  She made a mental note about her Grandmother wearing a bracelet.  When she sees the bracelet she remembers that moment, that feeling of love for her Grandmother.  

I have applied this thinking retroactively.  When I look at an old picture I give it a feeling.  Its not just pictures of our kids graduating to remind me that they graduated.   When I look at graduation pictures I have a feeling of how proud of them I felt at that moment.  

You can use this same concept to get more enjoyment out of your past and future pictures.   

Don't just remember, remember the feeling.