Dining Room, Pasadena, 2004

I bought the Canon 20D SLR in September 2004 and this is one of the first pictures I ever took with it.  Playing around with the sepia tone settings of the camera and manual focus, I ended up with this blurry photo of the dining room of our Pasadena home, with a very faint outline of the wall that separates it from the living room.  I can still make out every item from the dining room in spite of the lack of focus.  I guess, you live with something for so long, you don't need full clarity to vision to identify the familiar.  From the topiary on top of the dining table to the wall paintings to the light fixture to the curtains, these objects are forever burned into my memory no matter how distant they may seem, almost eight years later.  What we photograph as ordinary on a certain time and day, may actually serve as a lasting reminder of a slice of life.  Literally, a snapshot.  A reminder.