Greetings,

My first camera, a small Kodak Brownie Starfish, still sits on the shelf in my office. That worn little camera holds the memories of an eight-year-old intrigued with the magic of capturing life as it happens.

Most of the important and everyday moments of my brother and sisters found their way to the world with that camera. At first, only in black and white. The one limitation for this young prolific photographer was the cost of the film and flashbulbs. 

Hundreds, no thousands, of shots later I continue to marvel at how a simple lens can seize life. A smile, a touch, emotions flood across the photographic paper or digital scene keeping the moment suspended in time.

After watching the documentary film, The Way I See It, you cannot deny the art and mastery of the journalistic photographer, Pete Souza. Not matter your political perspective, the presidential photographer for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, Souza left us with more than a visual history of these two presidents. He revealed their humanness, compassion, and empathy in ways that words fall short.

To me, that’s the power of photography. 

I’ve moved past that little Brownie camera, but not my passion for grasping snippets of life before they disappear. At about five-years-old, my granddaughter nicknamed me the Nana paparazzi. I have thousands of pictures to support her claim.

How do you capture life?
 

Inspiration worth sharing . . .

1. When words fail, consider how simple images can unlock your thoughts.
    
2. If you live in the US, please vote! The history teacher in me found two articles to stretch your civic and historical knowledge on the history of voting in the USA from the Carnegie Corporation, “Voting Rights: A Short History” and the Online Encyclopedia Brittanica, “Voting in the U.S.A.”
    
3. My son sent me this music video from the iconic Willie Nelson to inspire you to always vote because you have the power to “Vote ‘Em Out.”