All I've Got Are these 8,000 photographs

If you remember from my last post, "Is Late February Too Late for a Christmas Post?" I mentioned how I do not write about recent events in a timely fashion.

Also, someone recently presented the question to me, "Why don't you post your travel photos on Instagram?"

Unsure of how I did it, all that lives on my Instagram is a duplicate of the same photo of Nathan and me walking down the aisle.

Why don't I have more photos?

My answer to that person and everyone is, "I don't know." Somehow Instagram did not weave itself into the fabric of my life. Maybe I missed it by a few years? For now, I defaulted to Facebook – a platform I don't feel beholden to, nor necessarily like.

All of this got me thinking about the 8,471 (and counting) photos on my iPhone. I have images of all sorts, from travel and pets to events to random people and objects I found interesting, most of them have a story to tell – and I'm always looking for more writing source material.

I love storytelling, and I think photos, especially of people in action, hold the ability to tell a story from start to finish in just a matter of seconds – a feat only authors can dream of achieving. (You know, a photo is worth a thousand words, and all that). Instead of trying to gather and remember events, why not be inspired by these images I carry with me everywhere but are left mostly unseen by the world?

Here it goes.

Like any story, I'll start back at the beginning. My first iPhone photo was snapped back on July 31, 2010. It's a slightly blurry and yellow photo of my dog Flash, who has since passed over rainbow bridge. The series of photos brought a smile to my face, and then I wondered, "Why do all of these photos look like they were taken in 1975?"

Either the iPhone cameras improved, or my photography abilities leveled up, or maybe it's a little of both. But get ready for more grainy, unfiltered photos. Unless the intent is to edit someone or something out of a picture for privacy, I will not edit or alter these images. Nothing staged for the 'Gram here.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy it, and if nothing else, these posts and photos produce a smile each week. And now, here's Flash.

It's like he knows these pictures are bad and he's asking, "You're going to delete those, right?"