Memories

I’ve talked earlier about Kathy’s talent for photography. But perhaps it’s appropriate that I relate a little more.

In a previous life, I headed a company that grew from #2 in the USA in our field to become #1 in the world. It wasn’t easy and it required a great deal of travel. How many people do you know who had to have extra pages added to their passports? Twice!

The best part of my previous life was meeting people from all over the world. In South America, Scandinavia, Europe and in Asia I met the most wonderful people. Kathy was able to arrange her schedule to go with me a couple of times each year. We had been high school sweethearts who went to school in N.E. Ohio, were engaged in England and honeymooned in Bermuda. And years later we traveled together in Europe and Asia. She took this shot in a one room schoolhouse in the village of Jiajueke in China.

Once, we were the guests of local bureaucrats in Beijing where we dined at the same table used to host Queen Elizabeth, George Bush, Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai at the Emperor’s summer palace in Beijing. Quite an experience and the scorpion we were served was . . . interesting. But in the villages, dinner often began more like this . . .

Walking on the Champs-Élysées in Paris one Sunday morning, Kathy caught this shot as the public works crews cleaned the streets.

My first really good camera was a Nikkormat that Kathy bought for me in Japan for our first Christmas together. She worked overtime for an airline to pay for it while I attended night school and worked days for a major corporation.

I tried out my Nikkormat during our first visit to Hawaii I took many rolls of film and Kathy took a few shots. Guess whose pictures were keepers.

Years later, our son “developed” (I couldn’t resist it) an interest in photography. Around that time I had an emergency appendectomy and Jason decided it would be a good time to build a darkroom at home. He drew up a plan including a bill of materials and made a presentation to me. All I would have to do is sit in a chair and be ready to provide advice when, and if needed. He was 13 years old.

The resultant darkroom saw many years of service after that. As Jason’s interest grew so did Kathy’s. He became the head photographer for the high school yearbook and Kathy drifted into a role as advisor to the High School publications staff after Jason graduated. My son and wife’s mutual interest rekindled my own interest in photography and lit a spark with our creative daughter, Sarah.

As time went on Jason honed his craft at Ohio University, Kathy developed into a professional photographer, Sarah brought her creative talents to the party and, finally, I realized that capturing memories was far more satisfying than making presentations to the board of directors.

I once thought that good photography was about mastering the technical stuff and it took a great many years for me to realize that it’s really about melding with the emotions of the subject. Now we’re a family capturing memories for families. Many people take pictures. But how many pictures really evoke emotion?

Have you ever had a photograph make you cry?