Candid shots

It isn’t very often that you get to recreate a moment in time. Even when the opportunity presents itself, it may take years to recapture a single moment on film. That was why taking a solitary photograph with my father during a recent trip to Walt Disney World meant the world to me.

The last time my father and I were both at Walt Disney World, we were celebrating Epcot’s 25th anniversary and my impending wedding. It was the last father and son trip we would take as bachelors together, and it was a great trip. It wasn’t until after we returned home, however, that I discovered this little gem from my father’s early Disney days, that is to say his trips to the Vacation Kingdom before I was around to muck things up.After some gentle ribbing about the swagger and personality found in the picture (and I am speaking strictly about my father's hair, not the Fonz-like persona my dad himself exudes), I had one thought in my mind: I must recreate this photograph. So, it was with great disappointment that I found the spot he had occupied now had a more permanent occupant, the Transportation and Ticket Center’s coffee kiosk. Not to be totally discouraged, I eventually settled on moving one bench down and taking the same picture of myself.This past year, I gave my dad a frame set that included a reprint of the original photograph and the version that included me. Yet, I still felt as if there was unfinished business in capturing the photograph. When I realized that my father and I would both be at Walt Disney World in August, I knew what I had been missing, the same photo with both of us in it.

While any trip I may venture on has a research and document list long enough to stretch from my doors to the Magic Kingdom’s front gate, this was the only one picture that I was continually talking about leading up to and on last month’s trip. Finally having secured the photo I have wanted for so long, a moment that was 30 years in the making, I feel like the family circle has now been complete. But more importantly, I have some great memories to hold onto.