Something very sad happened recently, which got me thinking. This article isn't meant to be sad, it's meant to be meaningful and inspire you to take action. I have three hopes for love.
A colleague passed away suddenly, he was only 24. He had found his calling, and gave a great deal of joy to so many people. He will be greatly missed.
At his Celebration of Life service, a slideshow of photos was shared. There were photos of him as a child, growing up and playing with his siblings. There were only a couple of poor quality photos from Snapchat and Facebook as an adult, taken with smart phones.
He was very close to his Mum throughout his life. Yet there were no photos of him and his mum.
Hope #1: capture love
Apart from the loss of a wonderful person, the great sadness is the deep love between people had not been preserved with photographs. Memories remain but can sometimes fade. You cannot pass memories on to the next generations.
My first hope, by sharing this story, is to inspire you to have your love captured by a professional photographer. As professionals, we can document the real you, and the real relationship you have with your husband, wife, partner, children, family and friends. Professional photos aren't just for super special occasions like weddings and 21st birthdays. We can capture those tiny relaxed nuances that make you unique. Like the way she looks at you sideways with a little smile. The funny faces he pulls to make you laugh when you're stressed. The way your children snuggle together when they think no one's looking. They're not about stuffy poses with fake smiles in matching outfits. That's not the real you.
Professional photos are for celebrating and documenting real, every day love. Portraits are especially important if you are always the person behind the camera.
Hope #2: display love
Be reminded of your love every day, by having photos displayed at home. Cathy Lander-Goldberg, a licensed clinical social worker and a professional photographer in St. Louis, Missouri says “Displaying photos prominently in the home sends the message that our family and those in it are important to one another, and we honor the memories we have experienced.” When children and family members view their own family photos, it boosts their self esteem and sense of worth to others. Moreover, everyone in the family feels positive when they see themselves when they're happy.
Hope #3: preserve love
Store your photographs safely so you can share them with your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews and their great grandchildren. This means printing them and framing them with museum grade UV protective glass. This means printing them on professional canvases and hanging them away from direct sunlight. If you have digital files, save them to multiple places: external hard drives, USB, Cloud storage, at your mother's place. You get the picture.
Julia Llewellyn Smith, feature writer for The Telegraph writes in 2017: “On the one hand, our children are the most photographed in history with more than 52 million snaps uploaded on Instagram globally every day and 350 million to Facebook.
Yet many are rarely looked at again... An estimated 631 million photographs each year, around a third of the total taken, will remain forever on accounts to which we’ve forgotten the passwords, or on obsolete hard drives, making them inaccessible to us and future generations.”
Hopefully my three hopes for love strikes a chord within you, and inspires you to preserve memories for the future.
Lots of love, Sarah x
References https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/breeding-lost-generation-wont-have-photo-albums-capture-lives/ By Julia Llewellyn Smith
By Chris Cummins