Last week two of my best friends in the world had their 25th anniversary. Their family is my adopted family and I’ll spare the backstory and just say that I love the whole crowd of them a whole ton.

I’m blogging about them here because, well, this is my blog where you keep up with my photography and occasionally personally when they mix. I really do try to keep it all relevant for you and I might stretch it some today but that’s okay.

I had a few hours to kill today while the house we rent is being shown to realtors so I went out for coffee after dropping my wife off at a baby shower to go through my pictures from the last week and pick out some favorites. Well, I started but I didn’t get past the party pictures from my friend’s anniversary. Honestly, they aren’t the best pictures I’ve made and won’t win any awards, but that really isn’t what they were for. But these were still different.

Typically after a wedding I’ll sit with the pictures and go through them picking the good ones and my favorites in the exact same way. But something was different this time. I was actually reliving all the emotion over again from the night and it really made an impact on me. It’s not that I don’t relive a wedding and smile and get teary as I get to key moments, it’s just that this was something that I was part of. It was personal. I relived the moments like it was happening because there was a connection to what was happening at the moment for me.

It’s moments like this that I think help make me a better photographer. I understand all over again why I do what I do. I get a view into every couple’s and family’s heart when they sit and review pictures from a wedding. They relive each moment remembering and often re-experiencing the emotion as they did when the image was made.

Back when I was starting out another photographer explained to me just what it was that made a photograph special. It wasn’t about it being well composed, sharp and properly exposed. It wasn’t even about it being cool or having a wow factor. Those are important, but they aren’t it. It was about being able to take the person looking at it to the place in the photograph and letting them live or relive the moment. It’s what I did as I sat here going through the party pictures. 40 pictures and I looked at them for an hour before I even realized it. I was excited as we waited for them to arrive, I was teary as the arrived and we all yelled “Surprise!” and I was laughing all over again as we watched the slideshow their daughter made.

It was only after this I was able to go through and pick some favorites from the night and it was really, really hard! I guess now I know why some brides and families take the time they do to pick which pictures they want. They’re busy reliving the moments.

I have to mention the cake here somewhere and this is a good place. The cake was gorgeous and apparently delicious (I missed out due to various reasons). Find out more about getting a wonderfully beautiful and unique cake at www.vangiecakes.com.

With that, I’m off to continue and enjoy a lovely Kelowna day. Enjoy some of the moments…