Capturing someone's life through photos is something irreplaceable and so precious. We take photos to capture memories that we want to remember. A photo says a thousand words. A photo is seeing something through someone else's eyes. We all have photos of loved ones we wish we could see just one more time. But what does a photo really mean to anyone? Why is photography so important? Any chance I get, I take a picture. I want to remember what I did, lets say, November 7th, 2014. I may have spent time with a loved one, gone swimming in a creek or even just had dinner. But nevertheless, I take pictures to relive moments. When I look at a photo from weeks or even months ago, I look for the look of happiness and joy. I think we all look at our pictures and smile.

I know I'm not the only one who has photo albums upon photo albums on a book shelf and in old chests. Every once in a while I get all of the albums out and look through them. Some of the albums belong to my great grandmother, so her picture albums are full of people she admired, some I don't know who are. Those photos she had in her albums were priceless to her, just as my photos are to me. I'm sure she looked at those photos and admired what wonderful people they were. Photos capture time periods as well, I've seen it in my great grandmothers photo albums. It's almost as if I've experienced the 1930s through the early 90s in those albums. I've come across familiar faces in those albums, but those faces are now years older. The love I have for photography will never die. If I can look at a photo and remember the way the breeze blew and remember how sweet that particular moment was, I'll consider it a treasure from heaven.

The photo above was taken at my high school graduation with an old friend I have adored from the time I was 14 years old. How special he is to me and will always be. When I look at this photo I think about how much I miss him and miss our high school shenanigans. I haven't seen this friend in quite sometime, more or less had a conversation with him, but I will always cherish him. This is why photography is so important. The feeling I get from looking at not only this picture but pictures, is something I can't recreate- it's just so special.

Photography is the closet thing we have to reliving the past. We don't get to redo it, but simply admire it and reminisce from afar.