Nick Started It!

If happiness is what you’re after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy
much of your time. Joy, though, is something else. It’s not a choice, not a response to some result,
it is a constant. Joy is “the feeling we have from doing what we are fashioned to do,”
no matter the outcome.
Matthew McConaughey

by Skip Cohen

​Sunday morning posts are always a free-for-all. Rarely do I know what I want to write about when I sit down at my computer. This morning I was at a complete loss but as I wandered through Facebook posts, two friends providing a little inspiration, Nick Vedros came up first and seconds later Wesley Simpson.

Nick shared the picture of Zorro above and wrote:

​Not sure you realize I was Zorro before I became a photographer.
Photograph taken at the Annunciation Church during a halloween skit.

Then, my buddy Wesley shared the Matthew McConaughey quote above with his new headshot.

Here's what I love about writing today's post...

Nick and I have been friends for thirty years, going back to my Hasselblad days. We've traveled together, done workshops together through Hasselblad University in the 90s, and shared plenty of laughs over lunches and dinners. 

Wesley and I, on the other hand, have never met. He lives in the UK, but we've emailed back and forth, talked a lot through IMs. It's thanks to Facebook we know each other. I've shared several of his images in blog posts over the years, and we keep promising to grab dinner in a pub in the UK or the US, whichever country resolves the issues with the pandemic first.

Now, the common denominator between Nick, Wesley, and for that matter, me, is how much we love this industry. How much we love what we do, and not one of us can imagine doing anything else for a career. Well, maybe Nick wishes he'd stuck to the Zorro theme longer. At the very least he could have filled in for the Hamburglar, but that doesn't change his love for the craft. 

There's a great quote I've used many times over the years when talking about those special people in our lives. It's by Alfred Lord Tennyson, "I am a part of all that I have met!" That one sentence describes how great friends like Nick and Wesley have contributed to the smile on my face every day. The two of them and many of you are responsible for who I am today, how much I love the craft, and what makes me, quite simply, love what I do.

This morning's post is a mini-tribute to our friendships and, yes, even Facebook. We all have a love-hate relationship with FB, but it does keep us together. It's made the world a smaller place and keeping in touch during the most challenging, most limited time of freedom in contemporary history.

Wishing everybody a day of peace, plenty of smiles, and time to appreciate everyone who's contributed to making you who you are. Together they've helped you become entirely unique and one of a kind!

Today you are you, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is youer than you!
Dr. Seuss

Happy Sunday...or Monday if you're on the other side of the world.