Reflecting on images

When we go to a new place, we want to remember our journeys. We capture them with our photographs - they are the least inexpensive souvenirs of any trip, and can often be the most valuable.

But in judging the quality of a picture, what makes it "good?" There are award-winning photojournalists that capture a person's spirit or a moment in time. There is a technicality that must be present to capture the right light, use the right aperture setting and snap the shutter at the perfect instant.

But sometimes, when we look back at our family photos or the snaps we've taken from vacations, its just great to see the faces of our friends and family. Most of us are never without our phones now, so taking photos and documenting everyday life with our phones and on Facebook has really become our new collective journaling. Instead of going back to newspaper clippings or microfilm, our ancestors will just look through our old posts.

I love taking pictures of the scenes that we see, but sometimes the details from our trip spark a memory just as easily.

For instance: this isn't a particularly great photo - It's just a parking lot, shortly after sunrise, as tons of people walk to the starting line for the start of Jay's race near the Pentagon. But looking at it, I can hear the swoop of the blades of the helicopter, because they  came up so loud and so suddenly. It just captured that moment.

In the same way, this picture is just of our poor, poor patch of grass surrounding our our mailbox. But I planted tulip bulbs there the first winter we were there, and every spring after then, we would watch them come up. And now I see this and wonder if the new owners were surprised and delighted when they appeared.

 Finally, this is a very grainy photo of one of the manatees at The Living Seas at Epcot. It might be Lou. It might not be. I'm not sure. But here's the thing. He represents everything good, quiet, peaceful and calming about the world to me. I'm usually there visiting with Jay, it's at a place we love, it's in the water and well, he's a manatee. It takes me back to our kayak trip on the Space Coast when we saw them in the wild. It reminds me that I like to explore new things (like when I wanted to study oceanography). And it reminds me that I should eat a salad.

I've got way prettier photos - but sometimes the ones I keep are the ones that bring me back to my happiest memories.