Capturing life frame-by-frame a community effort

With two kids at home, it’s not often that I find myself spending money willy nilly. Weekly expenses like groceries, gas and the heat bill tend to suck up a good portion of the budget. 

One expense I continue to justify is the monthly subscription that allows me to capture and save an unlimited number of photos and videos taken by our doorbell camera. 

While 90% of this gadget’s purpose is to alert us to the steady stream of online orders that make their way to our stoop, the remaining 10% is the most important. 

The front door to our home is witness to an innumerable amount of life’s precious moments. It captured video of us coming home for the first time with our two kids after their births. It was able to take a photo of my wife’s grandfather on his last trip to our home before he passed away. Over the years it has seen countless scraped knees, spontaneous dancing in the driveway and many videos of our son, Henry, taking part in his favorite pastime of looking under rocks for bugs. These photos and videos are saved on my phone for future enjoyment. I daresay these kids grow up so fast. 

This column is not as an advertisement for you to buy a camera doorbell -- though if you have the means to get one, I think it’s a purchase you won’t regret. The point is to say how important capturing life’s moments can truly be. As a photographer, I find great joy in immortalizing those seemingly small moments in life. The fact that we live in a day in age where they can be captured almost effortlessly by a metal and glass rectangle we all keep in our pocket -- or with a lens screwed to the front door --  is something none of us should take for granted. I will be able to pass down thousands of photos and videos of my kids to their kids and beyond. 

Here at the Express, capturing community moments is a key mission of your hometown newspaper. We’re excited to have the privilege to immortalize events, people and places in the area, and sometimes these stories are best captured with photos. 

To extend our reach, we are introducing a new photo page that will run periodically in the paper dedicated entirely to still frames of life here in Monticello and around the county. 

But we can’t do it alone, nor can we be at every event held around here. 

This photo page, called It’s Your Life, is a community scrap book of sorts. The space will be used to share photos taken both by Express staff but also photos sent in by readers and community members. 

Did your organization receive a donation? Send in a celebration photo. Perhaps your daughter set a personal-best time at her track & field meet. Why not send us a photo of her holding up her medal? Maybe you woke up on a clear morning and captured a beautiful sunrise. Send it our way so others can enjoy it, too! 

These It’s Your Life pages will run every time we have enough photos to fill it and in full color, so don’t be a stranger! 

Photos  -- along with a description of what’s happening in the photo -- can be sent to my email at news@monticelloexpress.net. 

We’re excited to see your perspective and share your news with the community.