Photographic Memories

"There are varying levels of interest in photography. There are folks who love it so much they do it professionally. There are the “Polaroid moms” who can’t resist taking a picture of the kids at least once a day – little Abby eating green Jello – Michael Jr. hugging the cat. There are the Photoshop geeks. And there is an Army of digital camera hobbyists, which I am a member of, who take pictures in odd clusters – 20 in one day, then nothing for a month.



It’s no different out here. Some soldiers take pictures of everything. Some just take pictures of what they consider unique- things they don’t think they’ll ever see back home, like Palaces, or Iraqi children, or themselves behind a .50 caliber machine gun looking like a battle-hardened steely-eyed killer. But it’s interesting when there’s a beautiful sunset. I see a lot of my fellow soldiers pulling out their digital cameras to capture it, though pictures rarely do a sunset justice. Don’t get me wrong. A sunset is a wonderful thing to behold, and even more so when it happens to take on colors and formations that really rest upon the retina with a splendor it’s impossible to deny. But we’ve all seen thousands. And we’ll presumably see thousands more."
Wordsmith at War