Take a Picture, It Lasts Longer

by | July 13, 2008

Take a Picture, It Lasts Longer

Jeff Summers

July 13, 2008

My parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary is this upcoming Friday. It is hard to believe that they have been married half a century. This is obviously a big deal and I have been wracking my brain trying to think of an appropriate gift to commemorate such an occasion. I had drawn a complete blank.

At one point I considered going through their photo album and select important photos to commemorate their life together and having Trina make a photo quilt for them. When I suggested this Trina was very excited but when I talked to my parents to ask for their help in deciding which pictures to use I was met with apathy. I decided that perhaps something else may be better and I decided to perhaps go a different direction. The question was, what could I do especially given the short time frame I had before the actual event.

As I was following Trina around yet another craft store looking at fabric, scrapbook supplies, and other things that I cannot even begin to describe; I came across a half created display. It showed a piece of canvas hardboard that I used to paint on during my art years before I moved to a stretched canvas. In the center of this canvas board was painted a purple square. I have no idea what the significance is for the purple square. In the upper right and lower left corners they had attached small picture frames showing a bride and groom. Over the purple square they had affixed vinyl lettering with a saying about love.

It was a simple project and one I would probably never even given a second thought to. Something about it though intrigued me. My creative juices began to swirl in the mist and before long I was running around the store looking for various components I could use. Trina was relatively confused but had learned long ago to stay out of my path when I get in one of these moods. Before long I had a small basket filled with items. I began to explain to her what I was trying to do.

She became extremely excited and started her own quest for just the right things to bring my vision to reality. After we got all of the supplies we left the store extremely excited. There were just a couple of things missing. I needed a few photographs. Some of these would need to be retrieved from my parents’ house but some of them I still needed to create. I waited for the sun to go down to provide just the right lighting and we set out to see if I could capture the image I had in mind.

I spent the next few hours traveling from location to location trying to find just the right composition. Finally in the final moments of daylight I got the shot I was looking for. Now all I needed was to have it printed. This was more of a challenge than I had anticipated. It seems that there are very few places in this small town to have a picture larger than 8×10 printed. I needed an 11×16 print but ultimately had to settle for an 11×14.

We waited patiently as the custom lab printed my photo. The technician asked if this were for the Idaho State Fair and suggested that I had a very good chance of winning a blue ribbon. It was nice to hear but this was much more important than a fair entry. I was trying to create a gift that would convey not just the love that two people had for each other but also showed the love that a son had for his parents. Ultimately I think it turned out very well. I hope they like it. We’ll know in a few short days.

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Posted by Jeff Summers

Author, technologist, and baseball aficionado specializing in information technology and developing new and creative ways to interact with the world around us. My goal is to extend the boundaries of what is possible and find ways to make the world a better place while having fun.

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