Just for the Fun of It!

My good buddy Scott Bourne published a story about my love for the industry and my recent Lifetime Achievement Award at WPPI on the Photofocus site yesterday. While there are no words to describe how much I appreciated his comments as well as Bambi Cantrell and Tony Corbell's at WPPI, just for the fun of it, I think it's time I corrected a few highlights. 

• I never drove Ansel's car across the country. However, I did drive it from Mosconi Center after what was then called Photo West in San Francisco up to Yosemite with another good pal, Terry Deglau. It was then shipped back to the east coast. 

Here's the background on Ansel's '77 Cadillac: 

Virginia Adams, Ansel's widow donated the car to the Center for Creative Photography to raise money for their visiting scholar fund. Since Victor Hasselblad and Ansel were good friends, I bought it from the Center with Hasselblad's money and then we sold it to raise money for Photographers + Friends Uniteds against AIDS.

The car was on display twice at conventions, once in San Francisco and later in NYC at what's now PhotoPlus Expo.  After the San Francisco show, Terry Deglau and I loaded it up with Hasselblad gear and plenty of Kodak film and took it to Yosemite.  To this day I'm convinced I'm a better photographer because I sat in Ansel's seat with my tush right where his used to be. Photo osmosis? 

Note: Sorry for the quality of the image on the left, but it's a grab shot of a picture on the wall of my office. That's Ansel's original rear license plate and Virginia turning the keys over to me.

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• My hair is never messed is almost true. For whatever reason, my hair is like a Brillo pad and even on the bottom of the ocean it stays in place.

Kayce Baker got this shot of me swimming with a turtle on a dive trip many years ago. While I'm being upstaged a little by the turtle, notice that not one hair is out of place!

However, I've been spotted more than a few times with my hair out of place, but Sheila's been the only witness. LOL

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• ​Sheila and I did meet in second grade and went all through school together, often in the same home room and right through high school. However, we were never friends. She was a cheerleader and I was a nerd. We ran in different crowds, but the friendship kicked off when I went back to Ohio for a 40th high school reunion. We officially started dating after I was separated and got married almost three years later. In June we'll be celebrating our sixth anniversary.

Third Grade at Clyde C. Hadden Elementary in Ohio

• I'm tired of Scott accusing me of being the only one older than he is in the photo industry. Yeah, we're both old farts, but you're only as old as the energy in your passion for the industry and imaging. So, by my calculation that puts me and Scott at somewhere around thirty-five!  Yeah, we really do both love this industry, helping photographers and in general just being a part of an amazing career field.
  

Stay tuned, because we're about to crank up a few of our legendary podcasts with a goal of helping more photographers focus on lots more than just their subjects!

Just for the fun of it, I recorded this short video for my online article in Shutter Magazine. The theme this month is seniors. After I did it I realized that look may not be far off! 

Okay, so here's the bottom line to this morning's post...there really isn't one. Yeah, I do love this industry as much if not more than people think. While I so appreciate the recognition of WPPI's Lifetime Achievement Award, at times I feel like my career is just getting started. In fact, every day I realize the more I learn, the more I have to learn and discover.

A big thanks to everyone for your comments and support over the last few days. To paraphrase the Beatles, I get by with a whole lot of help from my friends!