Time traveling DOES exsist.

When I first saw this photo, given to me by our cousin Robert (Jaybird) I was taken back. A very rare shot of our young family with our uncle Jay. The smiles and expressions are priceless BUT damn, who took this photo? Who cut off Bernadette? The photo is ruined!!!
But it’s not.
The photo exists and that’s good enough. I can not condemn the photographer for at least trying. In this case my assumption is that Aunt Gerry (Uncle Jays wife) took the photo. I have criticized her in the past for taking blurry photos but here’s the thing: Gerry was a picture-taker. If we didn’t have the picture taker…we wouldn’t have pictures. There is always that one or few in a family that always took the photo. They always tried to get everybody together for a photo. People hate when it’s picture time. The family picture-taker has to fight that. The family picture-taker has to coral as many people as they can in a short amount of time and take the photo. Taking photographs can be hard work but somebody has to do it. The picture taker is usually the unsung hero. In some cases a “timer” on the camera will get everybody in the shot but in most cases planning photographs can be very difficult. Sometimes (ok, all the time) when I look at old family photos I wonder out loud, “Who took this photo?”
Thank God for these people. They cared. They tried. In the back of their minds, “these people” knew that moments in life don’t last forever. People don’t last forever. If you grab a micro-second of life on film and have it forever that is PRICELESS. Most people don’t realize that. Looking at a photo that is now over thirty years old will make you realize it NOW but not at that time….most people don’t give a crap.
Gerry was very very special like that. She cared about keeping the family torch lit! Her name is on the “credits” page of the (see last Blog post) Family Memories. She has “piles” of family photo albums. (I know because I saw them when I went to Las Vegas right after she passed away) Not only does she have the photos but they are very well taken care of and arranged. If she had the negative, she kept it taped to the back of the original photograph!!

Joan Gill Hartman, Barb Hartman, were all very good early day picture takers.
How do we know who the picture takers were? I had a box of photos from when my boys were growing up. They are currently being held captive somewhere in Central Jersey. My kids were looking thru them and they happened to ask me: “Where were you in all these photos dad?” Well, my boys, I was the one taking the photo!
I was the picture-taker.

My Current Status: 7/13/13 1:52AM- Some people expect a lot out of me, I can change that. My Current Statement: Constantly being tuned into the alternate digital universe can create a false sense of urgency and dominate your mental freedom. My random Memory: One day I was out on the front porch with Brenda my sister and something stupid happened and I got so mad at her that I hit her on the side of the head with a huge 6 volt lantern battery. She was bleeding and crying and ran inside the house. I had forgotten all about this. I mean totally. Like blocked it out of my memory. Many many years later when I took her to a Giants football game and we were tailgating out in the parking lot she reminded me of it. At first I was shocked and sad and guilty. She forgave me at that moment. Days later and up to today, I think about how powerful my brain was to block something that traumatic in my memory.

The photography art medium has been changing at a crazy pace in the last 15 years or so. I remember film. The cost. The limits. The wait. No redo’s. Today, everyone has a camera in their pockets or there could be one watching you. Our world has become image saturated. If you go to google images and type in sunsets you will get 33,800,000 matches in just 0.19 seconds.
Surveillance cameras capture the image of an average city dweller 300 times a day.
Desk top publishing and photo editing software is at the fingertips of anyone that owns a computer. Musically it’s the same thing. It’s become a digital overflow of digital compositions. Some bands that have actually gotten their start in the oil stained garage floors of a real garage are being replaced by “Garage Band” on the Mac.
There are now fewer limits to express yourself and you can show yourself off to the entire planet earth!

Apparently the actual living of our lives doesn’t seem so “wonderful” sometimes. In one of the top ten movies of all time “It’s a Wonderful Life” the hero, George Baily leads just an ordinary life. Yet he is the seeker of a wild exciting life and even desires to attend college for which he is denied. He ends up living a mundane and simple life. It takes an angel from heaven to open his eyes to the fact that his life truly is extraordinarily meaningful and impactful. (impactful is not a word but I like it)

Thank you for all your uploads! Thousand upon thousands. I have downloaded and opened your photos for the past four years. Thousands of RGB memories. Miles and miles of canvas. I haven’t become desensitized by your weddings, sunsets, celebrations, family portraits, pets, and children. Because of YOU, I have seen the amazing moutains, forests, oceans and cities of the world! I have sat in my windowless Macintosh corner of the world and seen the world, thanks to you. Still, after all this time your photos MOVE me, make me LAUGH, give me goosebumps, and sometimes bring a tear to the corner of my eye.
Like George Bailey I yearn to travel. Crave excitement. Unexpected paths, twist and turns. I know there is only one thing better than your photo. The print is beautiful on canvas but in all cases of printed images-“You really had to be there!”