We get caught up in technique, equipment, who's good, who's better, film v digital; but sometimes we just need to remember why this thing called Photography took off the way it did, so long ago.
When George Eastman gave the ordinary man/woman the Box Brownie, at an affordable level, guess what people used it for:
Pro Fashion Photography, Money Making Landscape work, High Intensity Sports?
No!
To keep memories alive when they were absent from the people, and things, they loved.
Digging in a Hard Drive, last night, I came across these pictures that I had forgotten about and this 57 y.o. ex-Truck Driving Man couldn't help but shed a brief tear.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like you to meet Hunter.
The dirtiest, scruffiest, stinkiest dog you are ever likely to meet.
He ran and jumped and swam and rolled in nothing unless it was filthy and disgusting.
When he was covered, totally, he would return to you with a tail lashing like a Galleon Slavemaster's Whip; jump up and around you and made sure you got an equal share.
He was obedient to a word and had the kindest, warmest, heart you have ever encountered in a big, dangerous looking, dog.
...and we lost him, to cancer, about five years ago.
The technical properties of these pictures are all over the place; they are just a packet of snapshots.
To keep memories alive when they were absent from the people, and things, they loved.
However; I don't remember a time when one of my 'technically excellent' photographs brought a tear to my eye; like a few bad snapshots of a beautiful, (albeit, VERY stinky), dog.