Throwback Thursday: A Don Blair Mini-Album from 1999

A.I. Image from Adobe Stock

"My Man - Wishing you a cool Yule!"
Big Daddy Blair

by Skip Cohen

It's hard for me to believe that I still find photographs I haven't shared over the last 10+ years of Throwback Thursdays. I think of my lifetime stash of photos as one giant priceless treasure. Whenever I open the "vault," the memories flow.

I picked this set of images of Don Blair, family, and friends because it's that time of year when he'd be wishing everybody a "cool Yule." When I lower my voice and say the quote above out loud, I can picture him with that big smile and an even bigger love for the craft, his family, and friends.

The year is 1999 at WPPI, and we were the keynote presentation before the conference started. The images are all thanks to Bambi Cantrell.

Since I've described the program so many times in the past, here's the short version: We were introducing our first book together, Don Blair's Guide to Posing and Lighting Body Parts. We surprised Don with a few hundred people all wearing red berets! The program followed the layout of the book, even using the same models. The following day, on the convention floor, everybody was able to pick up their advance-ordered copy. 

Marathon Press did an outstanding job printing the books. Don and I flew to Nebraska and were in the plant as the first pages came off the press. Everything was delivered right on time, as promised—something that rarely happens these days!  

If you haven't gone off today in search of your throwbacks, take the time. It's the perfect reminder of the value of photography—stopping time and turning the intangible into memories you can hold in your hand.

​This is where Jodi Picoult's quote about photographs is so relevant:

This is what I like about photographs.
They're proof that once, even if just for a heartbeat, everything was perfect!