photobooth friday

The weekend before our trip, Adam and I spontaneously went to the Tuttle Mall to find the photobooth there. We walked the length of the mall; I could swear I'd seen the booth somewhere in the middle aisle of the ground floor. We searched the entire mall and were ready to give up, when for some reason Adam said “lets just walk down this way again, just to check.” We strolled on in the direction we'd already been. Suddenly, I spotted it tucked behind a bunch of plants near a kids play area, like a tiger hiding in the grass. They'd moved it to a new location, and it was a stroke of incredible luck that I noticed it at all. (That's what I call teamwork.)

It was not an authentic, vintage photobooth but rather the new kind that prints two perforated strips of color digital shots that you can choose various “fun” backgrounds for. Fortunately, we could select plain, black & white shots. And we did.

I had hoped to search for photobooths in Florida, but we had little time on the ground to explore. We didn't leave Columbus until Friday morning and had to come back on Sunday. (I had actually tried to post this photo before we left on Friday, but technical problems prevented it.)

But the brevity of the trip hardly matters to me, because I got to travel with my favorite person. On our journeys, we share the adventures I have always craved. The talks we have as we travel, the fun of just sitting next to each other watching the scenery pass, the glimpses into new places, the memories we make, these are things I live for.

I think this idea of “enjoying the journey” is the very reason I'm so drawn to photobooth strips. Not only do they capture a moment, but they capture a series of moments. They represent perfectly the moment-to-moment variety, spontaneity, and unpredictability of life itself. Just like traveling.