March 21st

March 21st, 2014
When I was in Oregon, I got to spend most of my time there photographing my grandparents.
My Bapa gave me his old camera and said he wanted me to have it.
[for those of you who don't know, my Bapa has Dementia]
He told me that it was his dad's, my great grandpa Dale's camera first, and that grandpa Dale had given it to him.
He even went on to tell me what kind of film it would need and that I might have a hard time finding it [luckily there's a shop in Orem that has it]
I had a lot of tender moments with my Bapa this last weekend, just the two of us with the house to ourselves, when my Bapa was full of clarity and told me stories like he used to when I was a kid.
This camera is now one of the most precious things I own.
Not just because it's a sweet medium format camera in really good shape, but because Bapa gave it to me and it was a part of that weekend where I got to see him through my lens without any distraction or dementia, just me and him.
Just like it was when I was little and would go over there every day and follow him around the shop or to go get a warm can of rootbeer or sit and eat peanuts with him and watch the birds.
This weekend gave me back my Bapa, I loved every second of it, especially when we were done shooting, we put on some "cowboys" and cracked open a tub of peanuts and shared them together.