Dad was an avid amateur photographer.  For as long as I can remember, he set out on each new adventure with his trusty SLR encased in a brown leather pouch hanging from a strap over his shoulder.  For each trip, he took along dozens of rolls of Kodak 35mm film which he would source from his stockpile stashed in the back of our kerosene-powered refrigerator.  He set up a dark room at home and learned how to process slides and prints.   He was always so eager to see the results.

As an upshot of his interest in photography, we have thousands of pics from our family adventures.  These now reflect fond memories of the many happy times we had together.

One of his favourite tricks was to line up the family in front the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod.  He would get us all arranged in the frame of the camera lens, and then press the timer button.  That would give him just enough time to  run around in front of the camera to try to settle into a natural pose with the family.  Sometimes, he pulled it off more or less effortlessly.  But more often than not, he was a bit rushed and not able to strike a comfortable, natural pose before the timer triggered the camera to take the picture. 

For Karen and me, it was so hard to sit still through so many takes and retakes.
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