I love photos not just because they capture what something looked like for a sliver of time but also because so often they also capture a moment itself -- a tiny story, a series of events, a feeling...
But sometimes they look like something slightly different than what they actually are...
When I was last home at my parents' house, I noticed my mom has this photo of me dancing with my fiancé on her computer. I love it. She loves it. But I love it for a slightly different reason than she does -- I love it (besides because my hair looks pretty awesome) because the photographer captured a moment that's not quite what it looks like.
What this picture looks like: Just a happy couple enjoying themselves while dancing.
What the photographer actually captured: There was a bizarre trend that evening of ladies dancing with one arm hanging down, leaning slightly back, head tossed back, looking out at other couples with a model vamp face, like it just takes soooo much effort to use two arms and they were above that. So this is me making fun of that trend and my fiancé laughing at my impersonation. If the photographer had captured me two seconds earlier, my facial expression would look more like Carol Burnett impersonating Scarlett O'Hara.
And it's for the Carol Burnett laughs that I love this photo.
(Oh, but I also now totally realize that dancing with one arm hanging down opens you up to the photographer and gets a better picture of you, so hey, joke's on me.)
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