Strolling down memory lane

Last Thursday I posted photos from my recent walk in the woods with the grand girls. Every year I’ve tried capturing these precious moments with the Autumn color. I have documented them every year since Twix was born except for 2017. We were a bit preoccupied and distracted in 2017 with Entrepreneur’s brain surgery and chemotherapy.

But I digitally dug out the photos and am sharing them with you today as I stroll down memory lane. It’s a brain slap to see them grow up so quickly. Sometimes days seem to drag but years tend to fly by before my very eyes.

This is October 2014 and Twix is eight months old; Peanut is six years old. I took pics in a local park and it was my first foray into an actual, outdoor “photo shoot” with them. Mercifully, they both cooperated better than I expected.

October 2015 was more of a challenge. Peanut was a perfect little model, but Twix had a mind of her own and very opinionated about what she would and wouldn’t do for the camera. After a less-than-successful time in the park, we just came back to my house and staged this one in the backyard.

In 2016, we skipped the park and went to our church’s Fall Festival where we took photos of the girls in a wagon with pumpkins. Not extremely creative, but sometimes we take what we can get and are thankful for it. At eight years old, you can already see the attitude emerging in Peanut.

I got a bit more serious back at the park with them in October of 2018, and our shoots became longer and less amateur looking…..but still far from actual professional photography. It was the first year I think I did a better job of capturing their personalities and was more aware of composition and surroundings.

In my opinion, 2019 was the year it all started to come together for me. It was our first year in one of the nature areas around town. I’m sharing two because it was the first year I really felt I did an above-average job. It helped that Mom Nature came through with some stellar Autumn color. And the bridges are awesome.

This October, 2020, the color wasn’t great, but I think my “eye” was better than years past. I’ve decided I prefer the more untamed backgrounds for this season. I believe the girls do too. The color isn’t as intense as in the manicured parks with their cultivated maple and oak trees, but every time we walk through these areas, there’s a sense of peace at being surrounded by natural beauty.

Sharing today with Happy Tuesday at Comedy Plus because this is one of my favorite happy places. Hope my stroll down memory lane brought a smile to your face today.