Senior Moments
Charles P. Eberson
A Senior’s Observations, Opinions and Rantings
Congratulations. You’ve made it through the holidays hopefully, none the worse for wear. If you have enjoyed the company of friends and relatives, you probably have taken many photos. You took these photos because these moments were important to you and you wanted to share them via Facebook, Instagram or whatever your sharing preference may be. But I want to ask you, implore you, even beg you to not stop there. I have been a serious photographer for over 40 years and I have seen storage devices go from 5 ¼ floppy drives, to 3 ½ floppy drives, CD’s, DVD’s, flash drives and the Cloud. Frankly, I do not know where it will go from here. But I do know that for many years, I have enjoyed paging through photo albums that my parents painstakingly assembled years ago. Some of these photos such as portraits of my grandparents go back almost 100 years. How will the photos on your memory card or smart phone be viewed 100 years from now? I accept the fact that there may be many of you where this isn’t important and that is all well and good but if it is important to me, I have to think that there are other like-minded individuals out there. To those people, I have some recommendations. If you haven’t already done so, print out some of your favorite photos. You can snail mail them to your friends or relatives. A small print in a frame will be appreciated and kept as a memento. There are now many options offered if you want to display photos in your home. You can have them mounted on canvas, glass, wood, metal and a variety of papers as well as mugs, pillows, canvas bags, blankets and even shower curtains just to name a few. One of my favorites though, are books. Books have stood the test of time and contrary to popular belief, will continue to be published well into the future. Self publishing your photo books online offers a variety of choices including softback, hardback with a wide selection of sizes and formats. There is a bit of a learning curve primarily because of all the features offered but it is mainly a drag and drop proposition. I have done three books; two small projects and one large coffee table book of my favorite photos. There is always a book in the process and more on the horizon. If you cherish the memories that were important enough for you to photograph, take some time to insure they will be around for many years to come.
