What's Developing?

Continuing My Love Affair With Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

This morning I read the chapter called Polaroids. Why Polaroids? Because when you're writing you don't know what's going to develop. She uses an article she was writing about the Special Olympics. As things were winding down, she was hungry and tired and ready to get something to eat. Then she noticed a young woman making her way to the finish line. She said she was making her way painfully and slowly to the finish line. Oh, please, hurry up, she thought. The young woman made it over the finish line. She said the look on her face was amazing. A tall black man showed her a picture of him with some of his friends. He was very proud of his accomplishments. It's a great story. 

It got me thinking about Polaroids. I don't have any wonderful stories such as this one. I DO have one of the new instant cameras (see picture above) that takes tiny pictures. I don't use it often, but it's cute and kind of fun to use. It's fun watching the picture develop. A few years ago we were in Philadelphia's Chinatown. A young couple asked my husband to take their picture with their Fujifilm Instant Camera. I was intrigued and have used it a few times. I think I'm going to use it a bit more often. 

It got me thinking about Polaroids. That was the hot camera back in the day. People loved the idea of an instant picture. If you were visiting friends, you could have an instant momento. They were cheap. It still isn't. But, it's fun. The colors fade in the old ones - aka the "vintage" look that younger people love so much. 

I have some family photos that include Polaroids. I remember taking the pictures and waiting for them to develop in my hand. You had to be careful not to smear them. Now some artists actually try to smear them to get an artistic look.

 So today I took a picture and watched it develop. And I remembered the feeling I got the first time I saw a picture develop in my hand. It's a little bit of magic. Yes, I know it's science, but it's still magic.