Worth a Thousand Words

Sandra Parshall

This may sound like heresy coming from a writer, but I think a photograph can often tell a more compelling story than words ever could.

A novel is an artificial construction that examines a situation, an event, a set of characters, from many different angles, and may leave the reader with a variety of contradictory emotions. A photograph is a moment in real time that can capture an experience much broader than the details within the frame.

Every major event since the invention of photography has been captured in iconic photographs. The Civil War produced some of the first battlefield pictures the world had ever seen, and those photos make the war real in a way that words in history books can't.


A handful of pictures define the Vietnam War: a little girl running down a road, screaming, after napalm burned off her clothes; a man with his hands bound behind his back as a South Vietnamese Army officer held a gun to his head, his life one second away from ending; American helicopters lifting off for the last time, leaving behind tens of thousands of South Vietnamese still begging to be taken to safety as Saigon fell to the Communist army. Think of World War II and certain photos will come to mind. Think of September 11, 2001, and your memory will produce a slideshow of indelible images.

Even in the early days of photography, ordinary people preserved the milestones of their own lives in pictures. A century ago, having a photo shot was a big deal and usually involved dressing up and posing formally, somberly, no hint of a smile allowed. Look at old photos of brides in their gowns or new parents with their offspring – their serious expressions and stiff postures convey the life-changing importance of the event they’re recording. Faded pictures of young men in uniform, looking like children about to go off to war and possible death, are enough to break your heart.

Browse though photos taken over several decades, everything from studio portraits to family snapshots, and you can see society changing before your eyes. Smiles and laughter appear, poses relax, clothing becomes more casual. Today the most common happenings in our lives are recorded, along with the weddings and the arrival of babies. Digital cameras make it easy, and they’ve made the whole world accessible to amateur photographers like me.

I’ve always loved taking pictures, but the only camera I had much patience with was my Polaroid Spectra, which produced instant prints, however poor the quality was. Digital photography has been a revelation. When my first, low-end digital camera was brand-new in 2005, I took it to the National Zoo for my first visit with Tai Shan, the lovable giant panda cub born there after many years of disappointing efforts at breeding this endangered species.


With a somewhat better camera, I photographed everything from Tai and his parents to butterflies and spiders, from geese to ice-covered shrubs. I hope I'll never be in a situation where I could photograph a cataclysmic event. I'm happy to record the everyday things that mean something to me and or simply strike me as interesting subjects. With a picture I can say, This is what my little world looked like at that moment in my life.


I’ve taken countless pictures of my favorite subjects, our cats Emma and Gabriel.


Miss Emma, with the lovely variations of her markings and colors, is patiently helping me learn how to use my new camera, my first DSLR.


Soon I'll take the new camera to the zoo and get some new pictures of Tai Shan. He's almost three now, and he and I have both come a long way. The next pictures will be the best in a technical sense, but my first fuzzy photo of him will always be my favorite. It captured not merely an image but a magical moment, when I stood three feet away from one of the rarest and most endearing animals on earth, looked directly into his curious, intelligent eyes, and regained a hope for our planet’s future that I had thought was lost forever.

I would need far more than a thousand words to explain what Tai Shan means to me. But one picture of a smiling baby bear says it all.

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(Note: You can see both contemporary and historic photographs -- from amateur to professional -- by the hundreds of thousands on www.flickr.com. My personal, very amateur, pictures are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/guppies/.)

Time Travel...

Lonnie Cruse

I've always been fascinated by the concept of time travel. Travel to the past, but not to the future, that is. I'd rather NOT know what's ahead for me or the rest of the world. But I'd love to go back and spend a day or two in my own past, (when my kids were little) or spend time with my parents, both of whom died when I was young. Or maybe I'd spend time with a famous character in history, like Abe Lincoln.

Time machines aren't my thing, I feel like they'd be jarring to my nerves and probably muss my hair. My thought is, the key would be old photographs. Entering the past by entering the photo of a past event. And, no, I don't have a clue how I'd do it. I just like the concept. I'd love to be able to interact with people from the past without changing events or harming history. Just spending time there, seeing what it was like.

But supposing I went to the past and found out something negative about my parents or someone else I cared about? Secret adulterer, serial killer, bank embezzler? What then? Interesting thought. Might make an interesting novel to write.

What if I found out a famous, much admired historical figure was a total fake? Didn't do anything history claimed? (Think George Washington's cherry tree, which fable I believe HAS been debunked.) Would I tell anyone what I'd discovered, or keep it to myself? And if I DID tell, would anyone even believe me? Who knows?

Where would you travel to and who would you meet, IF you could travel anywhere in history? Or to the future, if you are braver than me?

Somewhere In Time is one of my favorite time travel movies, though I did think the story got a little twisted at the end. (I mean, who started the whole thing, her or him? Meaning where did the watch come from, since she said it wasn't hers, but she gave it to him? Did I miss something?)

Now, what should I take along with me on my first trip into the past? Wonder what Poe is doing for lunch today? First I'll have to find a picture of him on the net. Excuse me, I've got to go pack.