the great birthday weekend
hello world,
So yesterday marked the fourty-fourth year I have lived. Scratch that. Yesterday marked the fourty-fourth year I have been alive. I think there may be 13 years that I have actually lived. Age 1-10, I was a kid full of life, no fears, no fences and truly living was in everything. In my teens I spent most of my time just dickin' around trying to figure out how to get out of class, out of work or into someones pants. You know, the stuff that is on all teen boys mind. So maybe I have 1 year of truly livin' there. Then I headed out west to the great state of Oregon to follow my dream to be a ........ well I really didn't have a clue. But I knew I was gonna be truly livin'! No rules and no commitments. I even had "further" painted on my VW wagon. Well, I figured out pretty quickly that a mans gotta work and workin' just took the place of the livin'. Then I met my beautiful wife Melissa and I was livin' again. Then my son Scout was born and I was livin' again. So why only 13 years of livin' you ask? Because I got so caught up in the day to day that I lost site of what is right in front of me. I guess what I am trying to say is do what makes you happy. Truly happy. Find it and then find time for it. I am going to make this whole year a livin' year not just a breathin' year. With Melissa and Scout by my side!
Oh yea, so what did I do on my birthday weekend??
I busted out my Deardorff V8 with a particularly amazing and incredibly shallow piece of glass and made some paper neg portraits. (images 1-8) Then I put a lens of classical brilliance on the front and made images that R.A. told me to try. (thank you R.A. images 9-11). Oh yea and while in my darkroom I found a couple film holders I have been meaning to process for about 9 months now. (images 12-14). I love the smell of fixer in the morning!
Yesterday, my birthday, a package arrived from good old Nikon. A D4 and a D800! Worlds apart from what I had been shooting the days before. (No, nikon did not get me these for my birthday. I am cool but not that cool! They just happened to come on my birthday.) Scout wanted to play in our truck so I took the cameras out for a spin. (images 15-21) Then we took Scout to the carnival for the first time. With tickets in hand and a grin from ear to ear we rode the merry go round and the crazy chicken. We even won a monkey at the midway. Glad I brought the camera for that last shot! The D4 and D800 blew my mind! More on that later though and I am sure there will be lots more to come.
Do what makes you happy and stay out of the rut.
keep on clickin'
Parker J
