Let’s say I could only keep a single picture from my year, what would it be? Since January I’ve taken over 12,000 photos between a Fujifilm XF10 and Canon 5D mkIII. Of those, I have edited a little over 4,000 and backed them up to Google Photos.
But is there one that I would take over all the others? It’s a tricky thing to consider. Especially since my camera usually only comes out to document family. Memorable things happen all the time. We visit amazing places. There are even wonderful mundane moments in the usual places, too. Choose a favorite kid? That’s easy, it’s whoever is being nicest to me. But choose a favorite photo? That took some work. But here it is 👇
NERDY STUFF:
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
EF35mm f/1.4L USM
1/1000 Shutter
F/5
ISO 100
I won’t get into too many reason why the photo above is the one I’d keep over all others that I took and love from the year. There was camping. Art projects. Gardening. Events in town. Four of us in a canoe. My oldest kid in her first apartment. Tons of possibilities.
I think often about this thing from one of Noah Kalina’s email newsletters (you should subscribe) that has stuck with me in the best possible way. I remember the feeling I had upon first reading it, which I still get when I re-read it now. I’m going to copy and paste snippets below, but it’s a short/free email that you can enjoy in it’s full glory here.
“On the day you take a photograph, it’s kinda interesting. Like, if you take a photo today, it’s interesting because it’s an immediate representation of your experience. It’s exciting to capture a moment in time.”
“But, much like driving a new car off the lot, a new photograph almost immediately loses its value after it is taken. In one year, the photo you just took will be almost totally not interesting.“
“Basically nobody will care about this photograph for at least three years. Then, incrementally, this photo starts getting more interesting again. It takes about six years, but then the photo is basically just as interesting (although a different kind of interesting) as it was the day it was taken.”
“Then, every day after that, it gets more and more interesting. About twenty years after you take a photo, it’s almost twice as interesting as the day you took it. This goes on forever. “
I love that so much. It feels right. It’s also tempting for me to look at pictures I took six years ago. That’s for another day, though. For a variety of reasons, that photo above of my youngest kid—in a shark helmet, cruising around an empty skate park—it’s the only one I need from 2025.