A photographic legacy {Brevard County Photographer}

This past weekend we said goodbye to my grandmother. After almost 85 years of life, it was her turn to go home to heaven. 11 years ago we said goodbye to my grandfather. It's crazy to see how fast time goes by. While they were both ready when the time came, my grandmother was even more so. She lived the last 11 years without the love of her life. They would've celebrated 63 years of marriage this year. She was a believer and knew she would go to heaven to be reunited with Christ and her husband.

When your loved one is ready to go and you know their eternal destination is heaven, it gives you a sense of peace too. She lived a long life and experienced so many things. She had 3 sons, who all married. She has 5 grand kids...that she witnessed each one graduate, 3 of them she witness get married and 3 of them had children she was able to meet. So she had 6  great grandchildren total. She traveled and enjoyed life.

After the services, we had to rummage through her belongings. This was not as arduous as it could have been. She was very organized and had downsized over the years. But the one thing that I noticed as we did this was we all returned to her photographs. She was a lover of photographs and memories. She always wrote the date on the back of them (something I need to work on). But we literally sat there for a while looking at these old photos and laughing about the horrible styles we thought were cool and the memories captured.

One of the things I get to treasure is a series of scrapbooks. In 2004 my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In 2003 after I graduated highschool I took up a love for scrapbooking. This is where my love of photos would begin. I made a scrapbook of my senior year. When my grandma saw it she wanted me to make her one of highlights through the years. So we sat down together and she pulled out pictures and told me about them and I worked for months of creating a scrapbook. I presented it to her at the 50th Anniversary Surprise party that the family threw for them. She loved it.

Now that she has passed, I have become the owner of these treasures. It is a legacy of photographs that will be cherished for years and passed down for generations. It tells the story of two people who fell in love, worked hard and lived amazing lives. They were blessed beyond measure and had a love that stood the test of time.

It was her photographs that everyone looked back on. That everyone touched and talked about. The VCR tapes were outdated, the stuff she had left was meaningless and the furniture was useless to everyone. But the photographs were tangible, in their vintage state, and they allowed all of us to step back in time a remember moments we all cherished.

As I continue to work with my clients, I continue to advocate printing your photos. And it is also the reason why I offer so many print options. A time will come when the digital device everything is saved to is outdated like the VCR, or they will get damaged or erased, but the photographs stand the test of time. Yes they may fade and not survive any catastrophic event such as water or fire damage, but otherwise they remain. I encourage you to find ways to preserve your memories through print. There are so many options...canvas, prints, scrapbooks and more. I would love to help you find ways to start preserving your memories.