Hey guys.
I've been wanting to post this picture and its story for a while now, even though I'm not someone who posts photos regularly (I mostly have old pictures, nowadays I don't have the time and I haven't traveled much lately). I saw the contest by @worldcapture and I took the chance of posting this.
I took this picture while on vacation with my family. The story behind it is a bit funny, arguably touching, and the reason I will never forget this photo.
I was experimenting with some old lenses, since I had finally more adapters available for old Pentax lenses (which of course, were my dad's), and so I chose a 50mm to try and shoot some portraits. My dad, he was an old-school photographer, he had tried a lot of cameras and stuff when he was younger. He was tired of fighting with settings and appreciated automation. He always said he hated prime lenses, he never saw the point in using one when you could have so much more flexibility with a zoom. I guess you might say it's a philosophical matter; do you move back and forth in the space around you, or do you let the space come to you while you stand still? Nevertheless, as much as I valued his advice and his points of view, I really wanted to explore the possibility, and I started playing a bit with my settings and taking a few random photos. And I took this one.
Three months ago I lost my dad. It was painful, of course. And when it was time to choose, you know, the pictures for the memorial card and stuff like that, I saw this photo again while I was mournfully sifting through my files. And I teared up. But I also smiled. And it hit me. This picture might not be perfect. You will notice it's slightly out of focus (manual focus on that lens, of course). But this photo IS my dad. There's no other way I'd like to remember him. And everyone else who I showed the picture to agreed with me.
So much that this ended up being the picture everyone will remember my dad with. Even though he hated fixed lenses. Ain't that ironic?
