Sunday, June 22, 2008

Tell me about... your favorite photo

My new Web crush is The Big Picture, a Boston Globe blog that compiles stunning photos on any given subject (Mars, life in Iraq, the Celtics' victory party) and displays them full-screen and in high resolution. It's just spectacular. And it made me think how much the right photo can mean to us.

There's a photo of me, my mom and my dad that we took one year for our church directory. The image itself is nothing special (although it is a rare moment of me in coat and tie) but it's a moment to hold onto -- my dad was alive and healthy, for one thing. He didn't become a father until he was 49 and you can see he's proud of his little family. I'm pretty sure I was in high school then and the biggest drama of my life was whether I would get to make out with a girl in the back of the bus on the way home from the debate tournament. I'm smiling pretty big in the photo so I'm guessing it had happened by then.

It also turns out that there are a lot of pictures of me and my mom, or me and my dad, and of course there are lots of pictures of my mom and dad, but not that many of the three of us together. So it's special that way too.

So... tell me about a photo that means something in your life. Doesn't have to be a family photo -- doesn't even have to be a photo that you're in, or that you took. Just something that you keep somewhere special.

And really, before you log off, go look at those Mars photos.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a wonderful picture of my Mom when she was younger. Her hair had just started to turn gray, she had a short 'do and she was in a cute pose that reminded me of Lucille Ball, looking upwards and away from the camera. That was just like my Mom, playful and full of life. I miss my Mom terribly (she died in 2005) but this picture is one of my very favorites and always makes me smile. I should send it to you, it would give you a chuckle too!

Anonymous said...

My favorite photos (still and video) are the ones I DIDN'T take during the actual birth process of my two children when this was all the rage in maternity rooms across America about 16 years ago. Some of life's so-called "Kodak moments" are better left to fond memory.

Anonymous said...

I have two, one is a picture of my two boys and my two nephews washing my old Bronco when they were very young. My oldest son and oldest nephew were probably five or six and the other two were two or three. They are 17 and 14 now. The other is a picture of me and my three children after I had caught a nine pound largemouth. My oldest son is probably about eight, my youngest son is around five and my daughter is around two. Again they are now 17, 14, and 11. Just reminds me when they were less complicated and all still thought Dad was the greatest guy on the planet. Back then they were all shorter than me. Now I'm just waiting for my daughter to pass me in a few years.