This is a photograph of my maternal grandfather (in front), his siblings and my great-grandparents. I have always felt that photography is incredibly important. As a child I loved to look at my mom's and my grandma's photo albums. I would go through them over and over again, asking who each person was and trying to picture them in relation to my parents or grandparents. I would try to imagine their lives as the children or young adults pictured in the photographs.
Photography is an under-appreciated art, but it is just so important! You can get a sense of lives past and learn about your ancestors. It was more difficult to photograph, process and print in the film days... especially in the days of flash bulbs and brownie cameras. I can tell that my family must have seen the importance of it through their vast collections of photographs capturing special moments in their lives. They could not always afford professional photography, but they continued to record their lives on film. Most people claim they would try to save their photographs first if their home, God forbid, caught fire. What does this say about those people? Perhaps that they value the history and moments of their past, they know the importance of family history.
The fact is photographs help keep our memories clear. Photographs reveal a bit of ourselves to future generations. Photographs link generations that would otherwise have no common ground.
Each family should capture those day-to-day moments and save them to the best of their abilities. For the most special moments in life, those moments where their is no second chance to capture the milestone or emotion, there are professional photographers. In the days where black and white film was the only option and photographs were created in a darkroom, the processes for both professionals and consumers were the same. Today, in the digital revolution, consumer methods of archiving digital files and printing are typically vastly different from those tried and true methods of professionals.
Professional photographers know how to perfectly capture and properly preserve those once in a lifetime moments such as your wedding or the first days of your new baby's life. It is true that professional photography can be expensive at times, but in the long run you are going to treasure those precious memories captured and preserved forever more than the new outfit, nice dinner or weekend getaway you sacrificed in order to have them. How many "things" that you would otherwise spend that money on, will still be around for your great-great-grandchildren? How many of those "things" will give future generations a glimpse into your life, reveal the real you when you have long past?
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