August 2010
The picture folder with the label MABEL currently has 3,425 items in it.
September 2010
I have been playing the contents of this folder in a loop of continuous randomness today to console myself for missing her with such ferocity.
October 2010
Of course it is quite right that this baby should travel, since it benefits others and it benefits her. No amount of adulation from however many sources can ever by more than a just recognition of her sovereign significance.
November 2010
A world full of warmth. A wide world. That is what she should have. And does have. And I am QUITE GLAD of it – except for being simultaneously and personally bereft.
December 2010
Because I am a jealous, selfish grandfather. Indeed I am.
January 2011
The 3,425 pictures probably represent about one-tenth of the pictures I have taken of Mabel Watson Payne since August 2010.
February 2011
Because the pictures are made spontaneously – even carelessly – about 9 out of 10 taken on any given occasion turn out to be hopelessly bad and don't get saved.
March 2011
Probably about half the images in the MABEL folder have already appeared on this site, more or less at the time they were originally taken. The other half would have been considered good enough to save but not good enough to disseminate.
April 2011
These rejects comprise the majority of what we are enjoying all afresh here today.
May 2011
When I look at a newly taken batch for the first time, I am keen to spot the very few primo specimens that are both expressive (informative) and technically tolerable (focus, lighting).
June 2011
But in terms of this morning's slide show it's ironic to notice how the most flawed and awkward surviving shots are triggering the tenderest emotions.
July 2010
The worst photos are the best, simply on account of being shuffled aside and forgotten. Left untouched, their vitality has exponentially increased.
August 2011
How can one tiny child contain such wealth of trust and ardor? Long ago when I was first a parent I was simply too busy (and probably too young, as well) fully to register how miraculously generous the personality of your typical baby really is.
September 2011
Only as a grandparent do I comprehend the scope of the gift. And can for the first time claim to be properly, adequately, consciously thankful.
October 2011