Is printing dead? I thought so until this week. Two things changed my mind:

1. As is my teenager’s way, she left two graduation presents to the day before her friends high school graduation party. Now teenagers rarely print anything anymore, heck they rarely post to Facebook either. For both my 14 and 18 year old girls and their friends (boys and girls) it’s Instagram all the way! So imagine my surprise when my daughter asked me to print out a bunch of 5×7’s of her and her friends over the last 7 years. She was going to make a collage in a frame to give them to take to college. So I fired up my Aperture (Rick’s the Photoshop Lightroom expert!), found every possible combination of my daughter and her two friends, made an album and called her to pick the ones she wanted. Once identified by her I dusted off my favorite Canon Pro 9000 Mark ll and printed out the requested photos after some cropping and adjustments (all within Aperture of course). My daughter put the presents together in a 13”x19” picture frame, wrapped them up and went off to the party. Her friends were so happy to have for their new dorm rooms an “old school” photo frame full of memories……go figure in the age of iPhone and Instagram!
2. So my dad has Alzheimer’s and is in a facility that has 10 other Alzheimer patients on his floor. I went to see him a few days ago (up in Elmira, NY) and while walking the hallway on his wing I noticed that every room that someone lived in had a bulletin board outside their door. Some were packed with photos some not so much. What was a common thread was how those photos defined who these people and their lives were before they started to fade away with Alzheimer’s. There were old faded b/w photographs from when they were young, work photos and photographs with family and friends throughout their lives. While quite sad to see it was very powerful in helping define the person inside. Of course outside my Dad’s room are photographs I printed over the years using camera’s from a Nikon F2 to my Canon 7D to my iPhone.

I’m working with Final Cut Pro X in the coming weeks putting together a video of one of our “International” dinners that I do with eight other families every two months. It’s like a cook club of sorts but it’s a good excuse to get to get together for really good eats and drink. This time we roasted a pig. There’s a great farm nearby in Yorktown that raises all the animals. As fresh as fresh can be. I hauled out my trusty Canon 7D with my Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens and shot some stills and of course all the video. I’ll post some video snip-its soon. In the meantime here’s a sneak peek. That’s Pedro guarding the pig ;).

Just Because: Couldn’t let the Rolling Stones 50th anniversary slide by without a little video. Check out this performance with Muddy Waters at Buddy Guy’s blues club in Chicago in 1981.

Also, having seen the ravishes of Alzheimer’s with my dad it saddens me to hear that Glen Campbell is not able to finish his last tour. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease last year. Here’s a wonderful video for the song “ Better Place”. Filled with photographs.