Would you be surprised to know that as of today I have 28,494 photographs saved on my smartphone? It surprises me.
The photos date to 2013, but still — that’s a huge number. And then there are thousands more images saved on photo cards scattered around my house and office from a couple of Nikons that I’ve used for work and personal photography for several years.
I’ve loved photography as a form of storytelling since I took my first photo class as a journalism student at Austin Peay State University in 1983. At one point, I had a black-and-white darkroom in my parents’ house.
My photography has always lacked the fine technical skill that results in the kind of photographs you find in a vibrant coffee table book. I’m more of an in-the-moment, don’t-you-dare-miss-it photographer. This is why I tend to use my phone camera so much. I see something unfolding in front of me, or I notice interesting shapes or afternoon light in a street scene — and I have to capture it.
There’s a saying that the best possible camera to use is the one that you have with you at the very moment you need it. In other words, even the finest camera made isn’t any good if you don’t have it with you when an image needs to be captured quickly.
The first time I took this “best camera” adage to heart was 16 years ago when my daughter, Renee, came home from the hospital with newborn Joseph, her third child. Right after she walked into the house, the baby’s little siblings, Lawson and Kathryn, both reached out with one finger to touch Joseph. I captured that moment because I had my phone handy.
Another example occurred Saturday evening. I was at the Pennyroyal Area Museum waiting for executive director Alissa Keller to lock up so we could walk up the street for coffee at The Book & Bottle Shop.
Then Alissa said something like, “Hey, come look at this,” and I followed her into the the collections office.
Alissa began to pull nativity dolls from a box that has been stored in the museum’s collections for several years. One by one, she unwrapped Mary, Joseph, a wise man and a camel from the box. The detail of the hand-sewn dolls was impressive.
I’ll let Alissa go into more detail about the nativity scene and who created it when she writes about this collection item for a Snapshots in Time column before Christmas.
For now, I’m sharing this image of Alissa holding Joseph as Hoptown Chronicle’s first Photo of the Week. It’s a new feature that we hope preserves moments that tell a story about Hopkinsville. You’ll find these photos every week — first in the Sunday Brew and later on our website. (Not signed up for our newsletters? You can subscribe here.)
I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I do shooting them. Hopefully, a year from now, we’ll have a collection of photos that say something about life in Hopkinsville.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
