The "The Art Of Photography! - Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Had an envelope in my lap and was pulling print after print from it to view before I reached in and grabbed this one last print.  Then, after pulling out the print, I stopped.  I studied and studied the small black and white, which over the years had turned a warm shade of sepia.

My Grandfather (Maris) on left and perhaps my Greatgrandfather.

Who was this person whom I was viewing.  The print had come from an envelope with my dad's name on it, so I assumed it was someone he might have known.  Then I turned it over and ... a tear formed in the corner of my eye after realizing I was looking at my Great-Grandfather for the first time in my life.  My father's dad had died when my dad was a child when he was killed in an accident while working for the US Postal Service.  I had seen photographs of him before, but the man with the mustache in the photograph I was holding wan't him.  He must have been my Great-Grandfather. 

My father's handwriting on the back of the print pictured above.

My grandfather Maris Woods
Same person seen as young boy above.

I tried to visualize if I looked like him and how old he might have been in the photo as he held his son, my Grandfather, Maris Woods.  I turned the sepia photograph over and there was my dad's (Paul Woods) familiar cursive writing that read ... My Dad's Father Woods, "Maris."  I assumed Maris was the young boy and the man holding him must have been my Great-Grandfather.  For years I have had that envelope in a cabinet in my living room and to this day never went through it.  Had the photograph been stored in a file on my computer I probably never would have looked at it.  But, since it was a portraiture printed on photogaphic paper, I have found my Great-Grandfather!  My story yesterday talked about taking photos with your digital camera and storing them in files on your computer, never to be viewed again.

Mom and Dad at the Jersey Shore and sneaking a kiss.

I must have spent the next half-hour or so going through the manilla envelope, looking at all the neat photos of my relatives.  Found print after print of my mom and dad as well as aunts and uncles, Grandfather and Grandmothers.  And ... my Great-Grandfather!  My story today is to alert you to the fact that photographs printed on photo paper or made into a slide, will last forever, if preserved properly or not lost.  

A few more photos of my mom and dad.  I am in the
photo top-left, top-center and bottom left.  The photo
on the bottom right is my dad and his two sisters, Lillian and Doris
Many photos show dad in his Army uniform.

What will eventually happen with files filled with family photos on your computer?  I must admit that for sometime I would load all my photos on to a disc that I kept in a folder with other discs filled with photographs.  I still get these out from time to time to view, but over the past year or two I have just taken the photos I download from my SD cards and put them in files on my desktop.  When my desktop begins to fill, I will move the files somewhere else on my computer.  Eventually I forget where they were filed.  How sad!  No old photographs for my children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren to view just as I did today.  Technology is great, but it isn't everything.  I'm going to make an effort to take my photos I take and make paper copies of them before I store them once again on my computer.  Could be that sometime in the far-off future, some guy or gal will be looking through my stack of old photos and find a photograph of me.  I may be his Great-Grandfather and he might shed a tear or two while looking at my photograph.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.