Photographic Memories

HP Photo Books are perfect for sharing memories. In these interviews, mom bloggers share their thoughts on photography and the photos that captured the special moments of their lives.

To read an interview, select the woman's blog:

Angela, mommy bytes

Angela blogs about her life as a wife, mom and self-described "software geek." Her blog mommy bytes often features photographs of her highly photogenic children Adam and Dova, with an occasional appearance by the cats.

Angela has been fascinated with photography since she was very little, and remembers studying both her baby pictures and her parent's baby pictures. She believes that photographs become an integral part of your memory: "I've always wanted to document my life, so I would be able to hold these memories forever. Of course they are essential for capturing once in a lifetime events like petting a panda."

When she was five, her parents gave her an "instamatic" camera and in junior high, she got a 110 cartridge camera which, she recalls, "took even worse pictures than my first camera!" In high school she got a 35 mm camera and began learning photography and dark room technique, both in school and at a job in a medical lab. Now she uses both a digital SLR and a digital point-and-shoot. She likes the point and shoot for its 12x zoom and excellent video recording capabilities, but feels that the DSLR is better for photographs, especially under low light and high ISO conditions.

Angela recalled some very classic photos when I asked about her favorite moments on "film" including this one of a starving child and the famous WWII kiss.

She also mentioned some recent landscape and weather photos that have really impressed her. As far as favorite shots that she has taken herself, she says:

"I don't have any particular favorite shots, but I am proud of some of the action shots of my children. I am lucky to have children that love to perform for the camera so it becomes a special time I share with them. I also love this photograph of my house taken at night."

Angela thinks that both posed and candid shots are great ways to capture your children: "It is really hard to capture the beauty of a child's face under perfect lighting conditions unless they are still and looking at the camera. But it is also important to capture their zest for life when they are in motion."

She's planning to use her HP Photo Books to record events like vacations and birthday parties. She's used online services to create photo books in the past, but is looking forward to the flexibility and instant satisfaction of "doing it yourself." She also thought she might create an HP Photo Book for her mom: "She loves photos and mementos as much as I do and would cherish a book that I created for her."

Do you print your photos on a regular basis or just share them digitally?
"I do print photos using online services such as snapfish.com. I also print a few at home for school projects. But all my photos are shared online at Flickr. I'm still trying to learn to weed out all but the best photos. I do throw out about 50% of then, but I still suffer from photo overload - over 8000 photos on Flickr in three years!"

Photos by Angela, mommy bytes
Interview by Susan Getgood