Throwback Thursday – 1998

​The year was 1998, and Bert Behnke was President of PPA. I was in my third year as the Association’s industry advisor. The tradition each year before the awards banquet was to get a group board shot and then a formal family portrait of the President of the Association.

In my previous life, I was doing a significant amount of travel. My kids used to joke around about me having another family. Well, Michael Taylor was doing the portrait of Bert, Cindy and their kids and I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I talked Bert into stepping out and let me borrow his family.

Well, when I got the print and shared it at home, it wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be. As Kenny Rogers used to sing, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em…” The two prints were filed away, never to see the light of day again until last week when I was going through a box of old papers. 

Even better is this image that Bert posted yesterday on Facebook of his daughter and her fiancé. His daughter Morgan is getting married this weekend. It sure doesn’t feel like eighteen years since Morgan was my “daughter” for five minutes in a family portrait. Although talking to Bert today, since she was part of my family that evening, he is expecting me to pick up part of the cost for the wedding!

That’s another fun thing about throwback images – you can’t help but catch up with old friends!

Like every Throwback Thursday, take the time to look for your throwbacks, because there are few things more fun than a trip down memory lane. But there’s a second valuable reason to chase down old images – use them in your blog as a way to remind your clients of the importance of great images. Remember, women make 98% of the purchase decision to hire photographers in the portrait/social category. Since most of those women are also in the role of “Mom”, a great blog post can be the perfect reminder for a new family portrait.