photography and [thanks]

during the last post i eluded to some [changes] in my life.  well, one of those changes was the fact i was laid off last month.  having gone through this before, i knew what to expect, but it was still a stressful time.  a lot of uncertainty fills your life when you're not sure when or where you might find a job next.

while unemployed, i had a couple of friends ask me if i'd like to take some family photos of them to use during the holidays.  since i wasn't sure when my next paycheck would come in i eagerly accepted.  it seemed like a good deal; they could get some family pictures, and i could make a few bucks.

as luck would have it, i was offered a job just a couple weeks after being let go.  this of course meant i couldn't take the photos during the week but would have to squeeze the appointments i had made into the weekend.  thankfully my friends were flexible and i was able to photograph both families this past weekend  i was very appreciative my friends were eager to help me out while i was jobless, and even more appreciative they know i'm not a professional.  when it comes to photography, i consider myself to be slightly better than a monkey with a camera, with my only advantage over the monkey being i know to take the lens cap off.  i have several friends who i find so incredibly good at this craft and take wonderful pictures; i learned again this weekend what a talent it is to capture great moments.

so with it being so close to thanksgiving, i wanted to give some thanks out on this blog.

[thank you] to my new firm.
[thank you] to my friends with families for letting me pretend to be a photographer for a weekend.
[thank you] to darrin hackney, anya elise photography, jamie green, jaclyn turner and anecdotally yours for your photographic inspiration.
[thank you] to my friends and family for always being supportive and wonderful.

ch ch ch [changes]

it seems there has been a lot of changes in my life the past couple weeks, and i have no idea how to feel about, or even handle them.

i know change isn't necessarily good or bad, but that does little to change the way i feel.

how is one suppose to act in the face of change? i feel those who wholeheartedly embrace it, don't ever fight for what they enjoy.  they're constantly looking for something new or different, and don't take the time to recognize the things in their life worth keeping. things worth protecting. things worth value.

j.d. salinger would say...

"certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone"


then you have those who never embrace change. they never look for anything new. they become static. they become stale. they devoid themselves the possibility of there being something else out there, something better.  something they can't even begin to imagine.

to that, mark twain would say...

"twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do, than by the ones you did do. so throw off the bowlines. sail away from the safe harbor. catch the trade winds in your sails. explore. dream. discover."

so tell me mark, j.d. which one is it?

couple this with the fact today is november 5, one of my favorite fictional historical dates in history.  the day doc brown invented time travel, so of course i've been watching the trilogy non-stop for the past couple of days. naturally my thoughts turn to looking at the future.  thirty years from now, what would my future self tell me? would he be happy with the decisions made, or would he advise me to take a different course.  will he be happy with where he is in life, or would he look at me, the 31 year old version of himself, and say now is your chance to do something different.

i know this isn't the movies, and the fact you never get questions like that answered from your future self is what makes this such a wonderful and unpredictable life.

i was told once, "if you follow your passion, you'll never make a bad decision".

it's great advice...i just have to figure out what my passion is.