More of the Photo Story

Shadows Define Light

Photography is the perfect medium to show the contrast between dark and light, good and evil, sad and happy, and even to tell the story of relationships.

One summer I asked local photographer to take photos of me and my grandson. The result was an amazing, fun story of our relationship.

A Portrait of me in 2015
by Linda Larson

Our Story is Worth Everything! 

When world reknowned photographer Me Ra Koh sponsored by Sony told her story at RootsTech2023 as a keynote speaker, she showed the most exquisite photos that I've ever seen, she said "Shadows define light" and "Our story is Worth Everything!" and the "world is desparate for authenticity." It rang true! She and her team ask close relatives about the person who is to be photographed, then they arrange the session and tell that person how the others described them. And the resulting photos revealed a unique voice or rather captured the resilence, that continues to inspire for years. I have had photos taken that did that same thing for me and my grandson.

Here is my favorite photo of my grandson. An enlarged copy of this photo printed on canvas, hangs on my bedroom wall so that it is the first thing I see each morning. His smile absolutely delights me. 

But we were having so much fun that summer, that to capture it, the two of us dressed up like Ninja Turtles! My mother dressed up at Halloween, so did I. I dressed up to sell fireworks in a red devil outfit while in the Jr. Woman's Club. So this was just another part of my history that tells a story. 

Many people now know me as very serious. But I have a completely crazy side too!

Ninja Turtles

Hugs

Learning About Google Images Search

Today's Learning Project

I've been watching some short videos and Google+ help to figure out how to search online images. I have a photo that has fallen out of the logical place where it would have been filed in my genealogical research folders and the names of the women are not written on the back. I can not remember who sent me this photo or what family surname I was working on. So I thought that perhaps searching all the images online might help.

I watched this video:  www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html

This was just the beginning of my search to learn how to let the Google+ search engine look for this or similar images on the web. Did I find out anything? Not today. So, if you know the women in this photo circa 1900 please let me know.

One video suggest trying a search for yourself. They showed how to just drag and drop an image from your desktop to the search box and click on search while in images.google.com. I'm going to try that next. Do I have a photo of me on my desktop, no, so guess I first have to place one there, or use a photo already in a folder on my desktop. hmmmmm

The love of Photos Came From Wondering Who I Looked Like in My Family

I have loved photography since I was a child. I wanted to know who in my family I looked like the most. My father told me during my first year in college that I looked just like him. Well, ya know, that really wasn't a complement. But later on I discovered a photo of his mother, Anna Mae Gough when she was a young woman (high school age probably) and I really DID look like her. I got a Brownie Camera when I was in grade school and took photos of my Camp Fire Girls group, took it to Summer Camp with me, and took photos of my dad when he visited. I even took photos of friends in the neighborhood. I'm so glad that I did this because I've been able to share these with people I've reconnected to during the last couple of years. My 50th high school reunion was last year and we all began reconnecting. It's been a blast. One told me about how my family always had tacos on Friday night. I didn't remember this but certainly still have a love of tacos. In fact if you gave me a choice between a hamburger or a taco... taco would win. 

When I went to Mexico for 6 weeks in graduate school for a painting and drawing class, I took photos. I'd been documenting my life travels with photos for many years prior to this, so it was natural for me. It really is true for us visually oriented people that a photo is worth a thousand words.