If you’ve spent any time at all on social media over the past few days, you know that the world lost two great performers this week: David Bowie and Alan Rickman. Both died at the age of 69 and both from cancer.
And our social media feeds, be they Facebook or Twitter or everything in-between, are filled with images of these two men, as is usual when these things happen. There is no shortage of pictures; they are everywhere. From movie stills to publicity shots to candids, these two talented men have a dazzling array of photographs taken of them over their lifetime.
There is no problem finding a photo.
No one is frantically saying, “Wait…we don’t have a copy of that,” or “What do you mean, this USB drive won’t open,” or “Why didn’t we take time to get his photo taken?”
See, I hear those panicked statements a lot. And they are heartbreaking. They are usually accompanied by tears and, quite often, a battered photo someone found in the bottom of a drawer somewhere. I meet with people in the studio who bring these torn and tattered photos and ask if anything can be done.
Because it’s all they have.
I remind them it could be worse; at least they have a paper photograph, albeit in poor condition–they have nothing more than pixels lost to time or stuck on a USB drive that refuses to open.
My friends, always remember that the photos you take and print today aren’t really for YOU. They are for your children and their children and their children. And years from now, they won’t care that you needed to lose some weight or your haircut wasn’t just right…
Don’t put it off.
Don’t wait until “someday” to get those photos taken.
Don’t reason you don’t need a photograph
Because even if you don’t need it, the people who love you do.
frank frost photography ©2016
