Smile & Say Cheese
Taking photos has been the long standing way of capturing memories and good times.
Who doesn’t enjoy looking through old photo albums or diving into a box of loose pictures to relive special places, holidays, family, friends and shared moments.
Today, most cell phones feature built-in cameras, so even more photos are being taken.
This is fine if you’re not camera shy or look like Cindy Crawford. Some folks always seem to look good in every photo….while the rest of us odd socks struggle at having our picture taken.
Examples….
A young Brad Pitt I am not.
(Nice haircut Eddie Munster!)
Here the dummy looks better than I do.
(I think the dummy is about to slap me with his hand.)
That being said, throw multiple sclerosis into the camera frame and things get even more uncomfortable when having your picture taken.
The reason I mention this was some time spent recently looking at the images on a family member’s digital photo frame.
In every pic of myself, I was standing with my canes, desparately trying to find my balance before the shutter clicked.
It was obvious I was present in every moment–but not really. Am I making sense?
Other photos, I saw myself rolling around in my wheelchair. In group shots, everyone else stood while I got rolled in front like a fern.
Having MS is certainly not how I want to remember an occasion. But in photographs it is often the first thing I notice.
My Dad, who was used oxygen the last seven years of his life, always removed his breathing piece before having a picture taken.
Now I understand why.
Hiding a wheelchair isn’t as easy though. Suppose I could throw a blanket over it, hoping people will think it’s a recliner!
I’ll work on that.
How do you feel about your MS in photographs? Are you accepting? And comfortable? Or do you have similar feelings like me?
Oh well, guess I’ll just have to grin & bear it the next time the photo bug strikes. Smile & say cheese…and hope I don’t have broccoli in my teeth.
3 Replies to “Smile & Say Cheese”
I agree with you 100% about being in pictures with MS. For all the reason’s you mentioned, I HATE being photographed. The WORST, is the group picture. You don’t have the option of hiding in the back. I am stuck with being front and center in my power chair. Having broccoli in my teeth is nothing, compared to how pitiful I look in my chair. Then you see the picture on FaceBook! People who ”used to know me”, will see the pic and think, ” I wonder what happened to Margaret”. I’m always tempted to comment, ”Don’t worry, it’s ONLY MS”.
Reading your post, gave me two ideas. If possible, I plan on removing my head rest, and maybe throwing something over my joy stick, to make it look like a chair. However, that won’t always be an option.
MS and/or aging, makes me cringe when I see myself in a photo. There fore, I don’t allow many photos to be taken of me.
Karen,
Eh, we are our own worst critic. Our beauty is on the inside.
(Yeah, I’m full of sh&#!)
Margaret,
In regards to your head rest & joy stick–tell’em you’re sitting in your video gaming chair…or piloting an F-18.
Keep it up girl!