Photos aren't important...

   There I said it. Photos aren't important that is why most of the time the images are left on a computer, usb drive, or disc. Rarely do they make it to a piece of paper. I am looking to change the fact that your images never leave the digital world. They never become a tangible item to hold and cherish. Therefore photos become irrelevant almost as if they were just a blank with no meaning. They are not truly used for their purpose. The photo itself holds memories, important times, and house unconditional love for the people within them.
   This last decade has become a time more than taking photos, it has been a time of meeting people and exploring the Earth together. Often sessions leave a warm special spot in my heart. I have truly spent the time with these people learning about their family, their homes, their dogs even. Knowing important parts of their lives help me to preserve a twinkle from their life, a spark from their soul. These photos are of actual times where the moment stood still, the moment that was suppose to pass but somehow got captured and is available to be lived, relived and revisited often. How can you revisit a memory? Photos! Printed ones. 
   Life as a photographer has always been more about meeting people, sharing interests and of course appreciating the life we are given, the things we love, the breath we breathe. Which is why the photo aspect is important to me which completely contradicts the title but it is about who is in them, what story they tell. Photos are about a time to look back on. I go back through session galleries often and crack up over a joke the youngest told, I cry over a moment with a bride and her dad. I imagine me standing with my Son on his wedding day. I live these photos over and over again thankfully, wholeheartedly and deeply.  These people I have met live their lives and I try to be a part of their lives going forward. I watch their life grow from Senior year well onto their growing family. I friend them on facebook and I share my life just as they share theirs. They have people who love them and cherish them more than I could but I know their legacy could go forward if they shared their photographs. Their moments not left or forgotten. 
   You see, your photos aren't always for you, they mean so much more to those who have loved you, those who have raised you. Your photos are gifts, a part of you that needs to be shared. Your life and your expression of a person lies solely in your story.  Print your images but not because I said so but I have seen them, I have cared for them and because someone out there will love the moments you shared, the moments they couldn't be a part of or a moment that can never be had again. I am so thankful for the opportunity and time I get to spend with everyone and YOU are important. To me, to them and your story. 

for the generations beyond us