Don't worry, it' s a nice polar bear.
We recently went to the International Wildlife Museum here in Tucson. It's a huge collection of taxidermy animals (aka real animals, but dead) in stylized habitats.
It's tons of fun for kids and has lots of learning opportunities (like the difference between horns and antlers, or guessing the animal by their fur, etc). My kids love it!
One part of the museum has a tall giraffe that you can walk underneath. My kids adore this giraffe and love to race around it. But it's super hard to get a good picture of them: the room is pretty dark, and there's no good angle to get a super tall giraffe in the picture with your super short kids. Kind of frustrating.
Which brings me to my main thought: indoor photography is hard. So many parents mention how frustrating it is.
I wanted to post these next photos to show you that not every picture has to be wall-worthy to be a memory. My kids love playing under this giraffe, but it's just not an ideal picture-taking situation.
The pictures you see displayed in someone's home, on Pinterest, or on blogs (even mine!) are usually the best of the best.
As a blogger myself, I assure you that for every awesome picture you see, there are at least 10 other just-ok pictures. And probably 10 more total flops that are blurry, have strange facial expressions, or fingers in front of the flash.
That's not to say that you can't improve your photography skills and take better pictures. You can absolutely learn to get better and better, but not every picture has to cute enough, sharp enough, or perfectly styled in a totally clean house. These are your memories, and life is not clean, prepped, and perfect 24/7.
We take pictures in situations that are not ideal because we don't live in a pristine, well-lit bubble. But those pictures are still what happened - it's real life - and there is joy and curiosity and childhood wonder captured in those imperfect pictures.
So don't worry if your pictures aren't good enough to put on the wall. They are meant to be memories, and they capture life just the way it happened: busy, messy, and (most of all) happy.
About Meg
I believe you can master your camera and confidently capture beautiful moments.
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You know, it's wonderful that we all have the ability to take high-quality photos now with the widespread availability of "Pro level" digital cameras, but it's sad if people are feeling like their memories have to look perfect in every single photo. I have scrapbooks full of photos that my mom took on our grainy film camera in the 80s, and sometimes people's heads are cut off or the lighting is terrible, and that too is part of the fun and memory! Love the day you captured here!
You're right. I think the fact that we have cameras that CAN take good pictures makes us feel like we HAVE TO take good pictures, all the time. Especially since we "share" so much of our lives online, and many other people are seeing moments that would normally be for our personal records only. Who cares if it's a bit blurry or has a head cut off... it's your life and your memories.
Love this post! Some of my very favorite photos are blurry and I feel a little sad I didn't capture the moment perfectly. However, I smile when I see those pictures so it shouldn't matter that I wasn't standing at the best angle or that my hands shook when I took the picture. The memory is still there...which is why we take pictures, right?
This is a great, great post!
Plus, what's a scrapbook without a giraffe? Blurry or not, it's a must!