Sunday Morning Reflections - The Value of Great Images

It's 7:30 am, the house is quiet, Sheila's still asleep and Molly the Wonder Dog is out cold at my feet. I've already gone through my email, commented on a few posts in Going Pro and Facebook Wedding Photographers and I'm just sitting here pondering what to write about. I love Sunday mornings, because I simply allow myself to go off track, get a little more personal and hope I don't scare too many readers away!
 
On a small shelf there is a picture of my mother. It's the first thing I see each morning when I come into my home office. It makes me smile and often reflect on some funny story from Mom's better days in the past. She passed away just over a year ago and I miss her. She was an amazing woman, but so much of our relationship was wasted not understanding each other.

Moving to Sarasota almost three years ago, to be with her more and give Dad a hand with caregiving, was the best thing we could have done. It gave us a chance to get time together. Even with the Alzheimer's, there were days when her personality shined through.

Mom loved her home and had a sense of style that was pretty amazing. She loved decorating. Architectural Digest was her favorite magazine and she hated it when she'd finally have to throw out a stack of old issues to make room for the new ones. She loved decorating so much, that every time there's a thunderstorm, we laugh and usually comment, "Mom's helping God move some furniture around!"

My point this morning is just to remind you of the value of your images. Don't compromise on the quality of a single shot, because you never know what that image is going to mean to a client some day. That also applies to your own images. Just because your livelihood is being a photographer doesn't give you the right to not have a camera with you all the time and capture memories of your own family! Don't let one moment go by without a camera and adding images to your own private Instagram of your life!

Great images make us smile. They bring poignant memories to the surface after being almost forgotten. As sappy as it sounds, they keep us alive and bring color to moments that we'd simply miss.

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.
What you have caught on film is captured forever...
it remembers little things, long after you've forgotten everything.
Aaron Siskind

As always, wishing all of you a wonderful Sunday. Hug somebody you care about. Pick up a phone and call a friend you haven't talked to in a long time. Take a few pictures of your family, people in your life who are important to you and add to your own collection of special moments.

Thanks for hanging in there with me this morning! Make it a terrific day.

Images by Cantrell Portrait Design