Why is my dad always trying to take pictures of me?“
Last week my daughter and I went on a 2-night trip to Seattle. For reasons I won’t go into, it was an eleventh-hour visit to UW, one of five colleges that accepted her application. The decision letter had to be post-marked Friday, May 1. We spent Wednesday, April 29 in Seattle and got back home on the next day, getting up at 4am on Thursday morning to catch our plane. The decision definitely had to be made by that same evening. So it was a little tense.
We arrived too late on campus for the scheduled guided tour, so they gave us the “self-guided tour map”. We had a fun day together, wandering around Seattle, a gorgeous place neither of us had ever been before. We threw away the map, improvising our own “self-guided” tour as we went along. I don’t think we went to any of the places on the official tour.
All I’ll say about her decision is that she is happy.
on the UW campus so I could add to my plant photo archive.
As always, I was taking photographs as we walked across Seattle, and my daughter, like most of the women in my life, complained constantly about how inconsiderate I was to be with her, yet stopping all the time, while she waited, bored, as I composed my perfect photograph.
And she is right, of course.
She was the focus of the trip. The only thing I can say in my defense is that wherever I go, I take reference photos for my reference file. It’s part of my job as an illustrator. And I get to write off some of the travel expenses on my taxes.
The world may or may not be a better place for those photos and sketches that you tolerate, but you will be developing your own character, an increased capacity for patience, spontaneity, and compassion for all beings. Plus, you should be nominated for sainthood, if such a procedure existed.
” My wife understands the U-turns, and me jumping out of the car and getting the gear out and taking the shots… What she doesn’t understand is doing the same thing five minutes later.”
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