I have spent a lot of time at the Getty Museum.  By America’s standards, it is a good Museum.   In fact the insider ranks the Getty in the top five of Museums in the U.S.  It has two locations in the Los Angeles area and I recommend both.  They are totally different experiences.  The Greek Antiquities are at the Malibu site, while Paintings and other incredible art is at the Brentwood site. It is world renown too. 

The Getty has a great collection of photographic work, and I enjoy the pictures the most.  This is because for me, a photograph is a moment or a fraction there I suppose that is captured that can never be captured again.  One picture in particular left an impression on me.   It was a picture of a migrant worker, a young girl, asleep on a bail of hay.  The mood, the setting, the expression all connected with me.  And it made me pause a moment to think about something more than that instant.  It made me consider something about humanity.

I know that ever since photography has been around, I think since the early 1800s, photography seems to have played a roll in both recording and shaping history.  I remember when I was much younger seeing photographs in National Geographics of so many different cultures that I know I would not be able to see on my own.

National Geographic is a gift to readers because the stories are rich and descriptive, but still the great value is in its imagery, the pictures and the photographers behind the pictures.  While the stories run the gambit of environmental to socio-economic, and political it is the pictures that give so much meaning to the words.  It is hard to overestimate the value of the pictures, and it would be unimaginable to have that magazine without the pictures.

The free Penless app is an opportunity for me to share imagery in a completely unique way through Penless Messaging and the QR code scanner and writer.  This is important because the modern world allows everyone to record history and inform the future.  It is fun and easy with Penless.  But just as importantly, it is personal.

So, ever since photography was invented in the early 1800s, photography has played a roll in both recording and shaping history.   I remember distinctly when I was young seeing pictures of the civil war and the Vietnam War.  I heard those pictures were consequential to people who witnessed the events from a distance through the images.

I believe that photography does connect us to our past, to our present, and to our future.  I feel blessed to live in an age of Snap Chat, Twitter, and Vines where we share the big and the small moments at an ever-increasing pace.  But I also wonder if in the cacophony of images, we take in the full measure of what is communicated.

I believe to a large degree, Penless puts a better face and pace on this.  It brings us full circle.  It gives us the pause to take a second look and appreciate the images whether video or a picture image.  Aided with the ability to download a message from your mobile phone onto paper, the page comes alive using QR code scanning technology to bring imagery and sound to a greeting card, postcard, package, gift, cup of coffee, binder, scrapbook, fireplace mantle, refrigerator.

Penless gives me an opportunity to have my own personal yet sophisticated photo gallery that at the same time, I can share through the mail.  I can include a handwritten message if I want.  It is not fleeting, it is lasting, it is enduring, and it is memorable, and it is in your hand.