If I had Only Been Born a Dog

"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
T.S. Eliot - "Little Gidding"

If only I had been born a dog or some other creature that God has endowed with a natural sense of direction I don't think my career would have had as many twists and turnings as it has had over the last 30+ years. But then it wouldn't have been as interesting either I think. In my career as a photographer I have shot editorial assignments for magazines, still lifes for advertising, head shots for modeling agencies, documented art for museums and catalogues at some of the "high points" in my journey.

Some of the less than high points were standing on my feet for 10 hours shooting screaming kids and tired families that had been waiting in line for 3 hours during a store promotion or having a "wedding consultant" with 10 months of experience try to stage my shots and run my schedule at a wedding. Whew.

Yet all of these experiences have made me molded me into the person and photographer that I am today. Currently, sandwiched in between all my paid assignments, I'm trying to work on self publishing a book of my images. As I review the images I am struck by how much the wheel turns on itself. If you wait and can last long enough what was cool and then passé becomes en vogue again. Black and white, soft focus, grain... But in all this work some images stand the test of time. They are the ones that were well crafted at their inception.

To arrive at a place in your life and say this is new and then to realize you've been here before. You were simply younger, less experienced. And now you see the same thing with different eyes. And your world becomes anew.