Pictures: So Much More Than 1,000 Words

In my home office, I have a bunch of the clear plastic storage containers.

For whatever reason, this picture fell against the edge of one of the containers.

So I've been seeing it for several weeks.

As photographs go, it is pretty bad. I took an inexpensive disposable camera to San Diego that May 2003 weekend for the annual meeting of the International Communication Association.

Nonetheless, this was the view from the hotel room I shared with Byungho Park, now an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore. The great view made it a great room, and we hung out there at night.

Of course, I did not know about San Diego's "may grey." So other than a blazer, I did not even pack a jacket.

The point is that this photograph triggers so many memories. Although that conference is now more that four years ago, this photograph triggers memories of fish tacos, my friend Nancy's craziness, our jaunt to La Jolla.

Unfortunately, the photo also reminds me that my grandmother died just as I was leaving for the conference.

If I were to describe all of those memories, the resulting text would span far more than 1,000 words. That's the power of photography and human visual memory.

I'm grateful that my father inspired my love for photography at a very young age.