We’re Drinking The Kool-Aid…

I’ve pretty much always been a PC kinda guy. Not (I hope!) like the guy in the “I’m a MAC” commercials, but most definitely – I’m A PC. I think it has more to do with my needs and wants over the years, and my desire to support mainstream technology. I’ve always liked getting my hands dirty, and I turned this into a business working with and supporting PC’s. I don’t hate MAC’s or anything, it just has never been my cup of tea. Even my cell phone is a Windows Mobile device, in spite of the incredible coolness factor of the iPhone.

Our youngest son Mark (who will be 23 this month), on the other hand, is much more artistic than I will ever be, and in spite of my very best teaching and lecturing, has settled firmly on a MAC as his technology of choice. And it suits him perfectly. It handles his music. He could easily sub for Justin Long in the commercials.

So when my wife Lorrie started to think about an iPhone to replace her expiring Blackberry contract (do cell phone contracts REALLY ever expire??), I could see the storm gathering. Mark gets his artistic flair from Lorrie, and she has always struggled with PC technology. It just never seemed to make sense to her. I don’t know why I never thought of an iPhone for her before – the intuitive interface and the ease of use should be perfect for her. And it is – she’s only had it for a day or so, but it is like her long lost friend. I suspect she may even carry the phone with her occasionally and be able to answer it before it heads off to voice mail.

So I find myself looking over her shoulder at this cool thing. And wondering when my contract expires. Oh my God, we really are drinking the Apple Kool-aid!!

(For those of you too shy to ask what the hell “Drinking the Kool-aid” means, Wikipedia will take you back to 1978 to explain.)

Bookmark This

It is always nice when someone recognizes your photography, and even nicer when they want to do something with it. Such is the case with one of my shots from the Pakenham Fall Fair, that I covered last August.

Pakenham is part of the Township of Mississippi Mills, and they are working on their marketing campaign for this year’s fair. One of the items they have created is a bookmark, and they want to use one of my images on it. How cool is that?

My image is the top one – the horse being led by a father and his young son. It was the boy’s first horse show, and Dad was letting him do as much as he could. The horse was a little large for young Tyson to lead by himself, so Dad helped out. I had an even better (I thought) shot a bit later on, when the judge was leaning over to talk to Tyson and ask some questions about the horse. In both cases, there is certainly a story to be told in the picture. I also got a picture of Tyson with his grandfather, who was at the Fair as well. Three generations, well represented!

I Met A Street Artist

I was in Texas on business last week, and I had a couple of hours to kill in downtown Austin. If you have never been there, the 6th Street area is home to numerous pubs, live music venues, and all kinds of artists – a very cool place. Armed with my camera, I knew it wouldn’t be hard to enjoy the afternoon. After lunch and a walk, I stopped at Starbucks for a coffee. In one corner of the store was an artist, quietly sketching away with a pencil. He was looking up and down, obviously working on an image of another customer in the store. While waiting for my coffee I asked him if I could take a shot of him at work, and he smiled and said OK. I took a couple of quick pictures and then sat down with my coffee where I could watch him at work. I fine-tuned my camera settings and started on a few more shots. As I was doing this, he continued to look up and down – but this time at me! It dawned on me that I was now the subject, as he was mine!

So I moved over to his table and started chatting with him. He is about 45 years old, and figures he has been drawing for about 40 years, and has probably completed some 30,000 images. When I asked where he stores them all – he said that he doesn’t store them, he gives them away to his subjects. So we chatted for a while, as he worked away at my drawing. When he was finished, he pulled it off his clipboard, and his face went white with shock as he saw the back of my picture. He dropped his face into his hands and I thought he was going to cry. I asked him what was on the back, and he turned it around for me to see – it was a self-portrait! I felt bad for a few seconds, but realized that now I really had to have it.  I wondered only briefly what might motivate him, and then asked if he accepted donations. Of course he did, and I pulled out a twenty for him and took away my picture – with gorgeous images on BOTH SIDES.

Pictures of both and Art Martez are on my flickr page.