Some photos are far more important for their sentimental rather than their esthetic value. They are reminders of past events and moods and feelings. The two pictures below, taken 20 years apart at exactly the same place, are an example.
Long's Peak From Flattop Mountain, 1969
Early one morning, my bother John, my girlfriend Melissa, and I began the long hike from Bear Lake to the top of Flattop Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped to rest at this overlook and I took a picture of John and Melissa with Long's Peak in the background. The camera was a simple no-focus Kodak Instamatic that took 126 cartridge film. I no longer remember the specific slide film I had in the camera. The simple photographs from that hike are a reminder of a memorable trip to the Rocky Mountains and a fine hike on a splendid morning.
Long's Peak From Flattop Mountain, 1989
Twenty years later, Melissa and I and our three children began the same hike up Flattop Mountain. Being the sentimental sort, I began looking for the spot where I had taken the picture 20 years earlier. At one point Melissa said THIS IS IT. I said NO, THE TREES LOOK TOO BIG. She responded DON'T YOU THINK THEY GREW IN 20 YEARS? I still didn't think it was the right place but she said TAKE A PICTURE HERE ANYWAY. So I did. When we got home I compared photos. She was right. My daughter has her foot on the same rock that my brother's foot was on 20 years earlier (note the same narrow triangular shaped shadow in both photos). The small tree just visible behind my brother's head (1969) is the much larger tree behind my daughter and her brother (1989). You would think I have learned not to question Melissa's memory!
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