Photographs, Words & Music

I bought my first good camera when I was in the Army. I was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone and there were duty free shops where you could buy the best cameras available and they were fairly inexpensive. I chose a Canon FTb single lenses reflex camera. I took pictures of everything imaginable.
When I got out of the Army, I was lucky enough to get a job at The Community News in Sumiton, Alabama. Small-town newspapers as a rule are rags, but this one was exceptional. Dale Short was the editor and he was a genius with words and pictures. It was a small operation (5 people) so I spent a great deal of time with Dale learning how to compose, shoot and print photographs. Dale was also kind enough to teach me a lot about writing. He had a knack for writing things that touched your heart. I'm not sure if I've ever written things that have touched people's hearts, but that is my goal.
The things Dale taught me have served me well. One thing he told me is that Photographs are like a window to the past. I know this is true because I've experienced it first hand. I have software that does a constant slide show on the side of my computer screen. I can be working away and a photograph will pop up that sends me back through the years.
I have photographs of my mom and dad when they were 25 and they looked like they were having the time of their lives....they weren't elderly, they were frail or sick. They looked happy to be alive.
I also have pictures of my wife of 32 years and I at various stages of our lives and I cannot look at them without getting a smile on my face.
One thing that I have experimented with in recent years is photographs and music. There is something about those two elements that is so powerful. I did a slideshow a while back of my old high school and put it to music. I co-worker saw the show and he told me it put tears in his eyes and he did not even know any of the people in the photographs. Here is the URL if you'd like to see for yourself http://www.dorahighschool.com/SlideShows/SlideShow2.html
The link above is a fairly large file so it will take a while to load if you're using dialup, but I think it's worth your time. I think you'll see what I mean by Words, Pictures & Music.