In case you couldn’t guess, I have a bit of Greek in me from my Dad’s side. Dad’s parents came out to Australia from Greece and settled in Melbourne in around the late 40′s to early 50′s, not long before Dad was born.
As kids, we used to travel to Melbourne from country Victoria to visit them and some of my fondest memories from those times are of my Yaya, my Greek Grandma as I explain to people who aren’t familiar with the term. She was a cuddly woman who delighted in having us girls around. My sisters may not agree with this but I reckon I was her favourite! We had a special little game we used to play using the very limited Greek language I had. I used to have to beat her to ask her how she was in Greek over the phone. It was a really simple thing that wouldn’t mean a lot to most people but one that always had us laughing and I always used to beat her – I’m sure she used to let me but that is beside the point!!
As all grandmothers tend to do, she always spoilt us with lollies and toys and Greek treats like baklava and other really yummy stuff. As most Greeks would attest, there was never a shortage of food in the house! We used to get sent home with massive bags of food “for the trip” as she would say. ”The trip” never took more than 2.5hours, but we may have starved during that time!! Years later I would laugh with my Dad at all the food scenes and how much it reminded me of being with Yaya while watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. Not to mention things like the plastic on the couches – yep that did and probably still does happen!!!
Over the past few years, as happens when people get old, my grandparents on Dad’s side have both passed on. I haven’t really got many photos or trinkets from them so when Dad rang today to email me through a photo I was pretty happy.
The photo is of my Yaya, my Great Grandmother and my Great Uncles in front of the Acropolis in Greece. Yaya is apparently about 20 years old, maybe a little less or more. Although the photo is really low resolution, you can still clearly see my Yaya sitting on the rock in the white dress. I think she is just beautiful! Not to mention I now have something of her younger years. Of course, even with the low resolution, I couldn’t resist doing some quick touching up to show Dad and my Aunt Dianne and my Great Uncle what the photo could be if I could get my hands on a higher resolution copy. You can see the results below.
I guess my point is that you can never place a price on what a photo is going to be worth. I wasn’t even born, let alone thought of, when that photo was taken but it immediately has a sentimental value to me. Thats my Yaya! She was young and beautiful and well, that is part of where I was “made” up from.
It has been said before, but I am going to say it again; as photographers we can never underestimate what our work is worth. What might just be a “family” photo now may one day be priceless. Those are the memories that we create for our customers and clients. We should be really proud that we can do that and have that kind of impact on people’s lives.
My goal now is to track down a higher resolution version of this photo for my album. Not just for my album though, to show my future clients what one single photo can be worth – even years and years later.
