A Guest Post by PBA Don Barone
It was 1980, Buffalo NY, War Memorial Stadium. I was shooting a semi-pro football game, had a “Press” badge hanging from my neck…got paid $1.75 and a free Chocolate milkshake.
Minolta 101, b/w film and an old green fishing vest found in an Army/Navy surplus store.
None of what you just read has anything to do with the rest of the story; I just wanted to give you a hint to my age without numbers. My wife just looked at this and said, “Just tell them how old you are.”
OK.
74, yep.
Slowing down, yep.
40 years in the Journalism biz, so add a decade or 2 to that 74 age thing, saw things through the lens that ages you.
But this column is not about any of that past stuff; this column is about a weird little thing I’ve started doing for the future…something I think you might want to do…
…tell a story on the backside of the photograph.
Yep. Imagine that.
Think where we are at right now: images everywhere; I watched my 4-year-old grandson pick up a phone and swipe through dozens of images.
Cats, dogs, him, food, toys, him, all through a swipe.
I watched and wondered about his connection with what seemed to be dozens of images per minute, so as an old guy I did this: I’m slowing down the swipe…
…moving it from a screen to his hands. With one simple add, a note to him on the back. A turn not a swipe.
On the back of some printed photos, I write a note to my grandson.
I tell him the photo of the flower came from his Grandmother’s garden in the summer of 2026. Tell him how our Shih Tzu, Boomer, loved to sniff the flowers, and how the flowers were placed around our house.
All handwritten and possibly some spelling errors.
On the back of the fishing lure picture, I told him that the lure belonged to my grandfather, who gave it to me when I was a little older than he is now, but that I have it saved in a box with his name on it.
Basically this.
Use both sides of the photo print. Pretty picture on the front, personal note on the back.
I always begin it with: Dear... and end it with….
…Love, Grandpa.
