Quoted from Joe McNally’s blog:

“Speaking of folks, I saw something on Kauai that really stuck with me. We were at the blowhole (no, not the U. S. Senate) but the Spouting Horn, right on the shoreline, where onrushing wave action sluices through rock formations and spouts 20 or 30 feet in the air. They have a fenced off observation point and i was up there, just doing my usual lazy ass thing. Spouting water! Cool. There it goes again. Where do we eat?

An elderly couple shuffled up the path, and I mean shuffled. These folks were ancient. Had probably been together 60 or so years. He had a cane, she used a walker. They were both stooped and bent–a pair of walking S curves. They got up to to the fence and looked out, enjoying the day and the late light.

Next thing I know, the gentleman moved away from the fence and held up a cell phone camera, beckoning his wife to look his way. She turned, positively beaming. She had one of those sun hats on, the kind you tie around your neck with a big, old fashioned ribbon. She was beautiful. He shot a couple of those “my honey at the shore” shots. They came together for a brief hug. Then they shuffled off.

I didn’t shoot. It was their moment, not mine. Two things ran through my head as I smiled both inwardly and outwardly. First was how much I missed Annie.

Second came to me as I watched them make their way, very slowly, in the sunset light. They were so frail the sun could have been shining right through them. And they were gone. And soon, they really will be gone, most likely. But they were here. Duly noted with a cell phone camera, an instrument much younger than they are. That snap might have been circulated already to dozens of grand kids and great grand kids, and might be saved, you know, forever. That last trip grandma and grandpa took to the islands. Remember that picture when she looked so pretty? By the shore?

Our pictures are our footprints. It’s the best way to tell people we were here.”

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog

Very few people ever watch their home videos over and over again but there are pictures that they took all over the house.
Many people say video will eliminate still photography. New high quality HD cameras allow us to take a frame from the video and it’s quality can match if not exceed the quality of most compact cameras. But there’s something different with true still photography.

I remember back in high school, I had an argument with Ron Fu in a Del Taco late one night about why still photography has a bigger impact on the world/people/cats/dogs/batman/etc than videography. Now he’s an avid photographer training to be a photojournalist. (I win Ron =P)

Happy shooting everyone!