The Challenges of "Before" and "After" Photos..

… are threefold.

Challenge 1: Don’t Forget to Take “Before” Photos
In my last post about gardening, I included the one and only photo I have of our “original” backyard. It’s not even really a photo of the yard; it's more like the back of the house. I’ve got tons of photos of how ugly the inside of the house was when we moved in (not to knock the Edins, but that was some scary, 1970s-psychedelic, pinkandorangeandblack carpet upstairs, man), but almost none of the yard. My guess is that I knew we weren’t going to do anything with the yard for quite some time, so I didn’t need any reminders of how bad it was. Still, at this point, I wish I had more photos.

Challenge 2: Don’t Lose Your “Before” Photos
In an effort to make up for a lack of "original before" photos, I took a ton of pictures of the backyard last year. I suppose they didn't really count as “before” photos; they were more like “in-progress” photos. But I was really excited about everything they captured: how my plantings grew or bloomed (or died) over the course of the summer, how the beds slowly encroached on the lawn, how the shady corner was transformed by the hammock and hanging baskets of coleus, how hard Mason and Ron worked on the patio. I mean, they rented a freakin’ tractor and installed two tons of pavers! Dang! (It has to be “dang” -- I’m typing this at work.)

All in all, I think we had about 60 photos of the backyard. Until…

Now, I’m sure this was nobody’s fault, and I’m not even being sarcastic when I say that. Here’s the deal: We bought a portable hard drive because all my iTunesing was eating up a ridiculous amount of space. What we didn’t do was pay any attention to how it was originally configured, which was, evidently, to perform an auto-backup when plugged in.

Anyway, one night last October, feeling guilty about using all of M’s hard drive space with a) photos of plants and 2) whatever I’d randomly purchased on iTunes that week, I noticed that the portable hard drive was plugged in. Thinking I would be helpful and proactive, I moved all the photos from the whole summer over to it. I mean everything: all the backyard photos, snapshots from my trip to Seattle to meet Addie, pictures from Mom’s 8th place turn in the 2006 Melges 17 National Championships, not to mention all of M’s kayaking excursions, fun with friends from Midwest Mountaineering -- you name it. Ev. Ry. Thing.

I think you can guess where this story is going. Unless you think it has a happy ending. Because it doesn’t. Needless to say, the next time the hard drive was plugged in, it backed up the laptop -- from which the summer photos had been moved -- thus erasing the photos. A few moments of finger-pointing ensued about how the thing was set up and who should have known before using it, and all that. It didn't help that M reminded me how many technology projects I've worked on, to which my response is, "I don't do hardware." It passed pretty quickly (we don’t really do that kind of thing), but bottom line: I got no “before” photos from last year.

Side note: We now both know how to use the portable hard drive, which is to say that Mason uses it and I mostly ignore it because I’m still pissed. And I don't do hardware.

Challenge 3: Don’t Forget to Take “After” Photos
You’d think I would have learned from Challenge 1 (“Don’t Forget to Take “Before” Photos”), but not really. The problem is that I get exhausted, excited or some weird combination of the two -- any of which inhibit rational thought.

When I’m finishing up a multi-hour stretch of hardcore gardening (two words I never thought I’d string together), I’m pretty worn down, but I’m also so jazzed about what I’ve done that it’s almost hard to stop. Unless my wrist is really bugging me or I’m getting sunburned or there’s some kind of external time constraint, I’m liable keep going until I run out of energy or daylight. Either way, I’m happy, but tired and distracted. One night a few weeks ago, after working outside until 8:30, my brain was so unreliable that I left the garage door wiiiiiiiiide open with all my precious gardening tools inside. Remembering to take “after” photos? Please.

Oh, it’s possible that I’ll remember the following day, if it’s not raining, but chances are that if the weather’s nice, I’m too excited to get working again that I don't remember the camera.

I’m really really trying to be better about it this year. But it’s early yet, so we’ll have to see.