Why do I take foot photos?

As a photographer, I know that I tend to take photos when I reach the summit of a mountain. Even if clouds are obscuring my vision beyond five feet, I’ll take a photo, just to prove I’ve been there. Looking through my folders of photos, all safely stored on my external hard drive, I notice other trends in my picture taking. I like to take photos of food, glacial rocks, flowers, bumblebees, shadows, weird mushrooms, reflections, furry and feathered animals (usually blurry), and … my feet? Yes, I have a habit of photographing my feet. I realized this today and began collecting all the foot photos I could find on my hard drive. I ended up with 20 photos in 20 different locations. Why, you may ask. Good question. I could come up with a completely bogus philosophical essay about how my feet symbolize my love for hiking. The funny thing is that if I go back to the times that I took each individual foot picture, I think I took them for different reasons. I’ll give my best guess for the reasoning behind each foot photo in the caption of 12 select foot photos here.

If you’re wondering, I will continue to take foot photos, but now I’ll be more aware of what I’m doing and I’m afraid the photos won’t be as candid. I guess that makes this album a gem.

Photo by Aislinn Sarnacki. My feet on Mount Abraham in summer of 2009. Why: It was a really muddy trail and I felt like complaining via photo.

Aislinn Sarnacki

About Aislinn Sarnacki

Aislinn is a Bangor Daily News reporter for the Outdoors pages, focusing on outdoor recreation and Maine wildlife. Visit her main blog at actoutwithaislinn.bangordailynews.com.