Welcome to my new guest blog post series – The photo I’m thankful for.
This is a project that has been swirling round in my head for a long time now, and I’m really excited to get it out of there and onto here.
Now, I’m not sure if this is the done thing, but for the first week I’m going to be my own guest, and feature my photos that I am thankful for.
That’s what this guest post series is all about. You might know that I go on a lot around here about how important it is for us all to get in more photos, well this is a continuation of that.
I want people to share with me the photo of themselves that they’re really happy was taken. A photo that captures a moment in time that means a lot to them. A photo of them with someone they don’t see much anymore. A photo that they know they’ll look back on in the future and be really thankful for.
I’ve got a few photos that I’m sharing in this first post. Some of them I’ll admit are sort of cliches, but I’ve decided that’s ok. Things are often cliches for a reason. And these photos of the big moments in my life are ones I am really thankful I have photos of.
So, enough talking, on to the photos!
This first one is from 2007, when Steve and I flew out to the South of France to meet my parents for a holiday. It was the first time we’d done anything like that, and it’s something I’ll always remember.
My Mum has always said that you can tell when Steve is the one taking a photo of me because of the way I’m smiling in it, and I think that is really true of this picture. There’s a bit of a sparkle in my eyes that does tend to be just for him! It’s quite scary to think that this photo was taken 10 years ago, and I do look really quite young in it. I love looking at this though, and thinking how different life was back then, before we got married and had the children. The girl in that photo? I’m not sure I’m really her any more, so much has changed in the last 10 years. Not everything changes though, there’s still a sparkle in my eyes when Steve takes a photo of me!
The next photo is a more cliched one, but I’m extremely thankful for it.
In case you can’t guess, it’s from our wedding day, only a few months after the photo in France was taken.
We got married in County Hall in Swansea, and walked over to the beach after the ceremony for some champagne. It was a tiny wedding, only about 12 of us there, but luckily our friend Dave agreed to take some photos for us.
I’ll always be grateful to him for that, those photos that he took mean so much to me. And I love that they so perfectly capture what our day was about. In the future, we can show these to our children, and they can see how much love they were born into.
The next photo is me and my family. It’s a snapshot really, taken by my niece. But again, I’m so thankful for it. I don’t see my family that often as we live quite far apart, so whenever I get the chance I make everyone get in a photo with me.
These family photos mean so much to me now, and I know they’ll mean the world to me one day.
The last pictures I’m sharing are real cliches. They’re of me and my babies, right after they were born.
The first one, of Rhys, is so important to me because I had been on gas and air for so long by the time he arrived that, honestly, my memories of those first moments are hazy at best. And as for the photos of Nerys, I really didn’t think they existed until I went on a mission looking for them for this post!
I thought Steve must have taken some of me and her together, but they weren’t in the folder on the computer with the rest of her photos. I really had started to believe that maybe we were both just a little surprised that she was actually here and that we didn’t take any photos!
But a dig around his old phone photos revealed a little treasure trove of memories. There’s a photo of me with monitors taped to my stomach, tracking Nerys’ movements and then, from just over an hour later, there’s a photo of her in my arms.
These photos, I’m so thankful for. Those were some defining moments for me. The moments my life changed. And I’m so happy I have the photos that show I was there.
Now, over to you.
If you have a photo and a story to tell please do get in touch.
I would love to hear all about the photos you are thankful for. The photos that show you were there. The photos your children will be so thankful for in the future.
I’m looking for photos that show who you are now, or who you used to be. The photos that capture those moments that mean the world to you. The photos that show those tiny, everyday moments that seem so ordinary now, but will mean so much more in years to come.
Oh there are so many possibilities here!
Maybe you have a photo of you that made you realise how beautiful you are, just as you are.
Or a photo of you doing something that makes you feel really proud, that you’ll love to talk to your children about when they’re older.
It could be a photo of you and an adored pet who is no longer around.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be you in the photo. If you have a photo that means the world to you, of your parents or a sibling, or an old friend, that counts to. The point here is to celebrate photos, and how important it is to take them and to be in them.
If this sounds like something you’d like to get involved with then email me at thisgloriouslife@gmail.com
