In a world of meticulously edited and photoshopped magazine covers, and countless Instagram filters, we tend to forget why we take photos in the first place: capturing and cherishing a moment.
Sure, it’s always a plus when you look fantastic in a picture of you and your friends but isn’t the real value of that picture the memory of spending time with people whom you adore?
Image source: iStock
Kaylin Maree Schimpf, an inspirational speaker, recently took to social media–a place notorious for flattering photos–with a poignant message to parents who shy away from the other side of the camera. That message: “Just take the photo.”
Those four simple words have had a lasting effect on the internet as of late because it seems as though modern parents are so obsessed with taking photos of their children, that they forget to be in them.
“Take the photo,” she wrote in a Facebook post earlier this September. “Messy hair, no makeup or a dirty old t-shirt won’t matter to your children when she is gone someday.”
You may notice that the post is noticeably addressed to males and father figures, but that doesn’t mean the heartfelt message can’t be applied to moms as well!
Frankly, it’s clear that both men and women have taken notice of Schimpf’s post–it’s already garnered over 31,000 shares and 59,000 likes on Facebook.
It is important to note that Schimpf is not yet a mother. In fact, she and her partner have been working on having their own very soon. And when they do, you can safely bet that there will be a vast number of photos of their entire family smiling happily back into the lens of the camera!
Schimpf originally decided to share the importance of being in photos with the ones you love when she was mourning the loss of her father. It was during this depressing chapter in her life that she realized how few photos she had with her recently deceased dad.
Why? Because he was always behind the camera and never in front of it.
Image source; iStock
“Someday, I want [my children] to see me, documented, sitting right there beside them,” she wrote in her Facebook post.
“Photos are all we have eventually,” she told The Huffington Post in an interview. “Memories are great, but I look back and I have nothing of my dad.”
That’s why you should take these wise words with earnest, parents: “Just take the photo”.
[H/T] The Huffington Post
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