Ivan,
You clearly have a refined eye for elements of design in the world around you. Superbly seen and crafted pictures abound on your site.
Perhaps this is a major factor in you falling straight into Italy. There is little or nothing in the place that is not design focussed — even down to the cobbled paving.
Other parts of this thread are quite sad though. Galileo said if the world is boring you, take more interest in it. Such I think is the case with Rob's reawakening to the delights and possibilities around him. Break free of the routine and safety old mate and just go in quest of motifs and points of interest beyond the usual path to lunch and back along the quay.Cheers,
Forget the cobbles: think of the ladies! Style, colour and style again; they live it. Bella figura and bellisime donne; twin peaks of life.
Walter, you must understand the quandary perhaps better than most: we shared a lifestyle/workstyle for a while, and what happened to us both when the boatman blew his whistle and beckoned us back in?
You took up the urban hand’o’man thing, I think, where I, perched on my St Helena, went into a silent sulk, only eventually to find that all that was left for me to do in life was shoot more pictures if only to stop me going crazy. Or maybe to help me to miss the point that going crazy is the fate that awaits all old shooters when the war’s over and nobody needs our guns anymore.
You seem to have found a new interest in bodies; I can’t afford them – well, I can, but can’t justify it against the kids’ inheritance or the time/reserves equation oldies eventually face when there is no interest coming in anymore from all those careful savings. I have never felt deeply drawn to ARAT for all the creativity arguments I've fought here already on this topic, but now, with the cellpix phase running along quietly but also getting nowhere fast, my ventures out into the wilds prove, as if proof were ever needed, that short of having a girl along, it’s nothing, but nothing, other than ARAT out there. I might find some geometric interest in local architecture, but that’s quite unlikely, apart from it having been done to death years ago, and the bookshops selling it vanishing like snowflakes in summer, not to mention the real estate vendors doing the same.
Now, there are two things to understand here: the first is that it’s great to discover that one can still mange to climb up hills and mountains, even if mostly from the comfort of a car, with the final few yards by foot over tank traps. The second thing to note is that this is distinct from the act of photography: it’s just pleasant to be in nice places, with or without camera.
Perhaps the truth is that photography isn’t really a clever way to make a living unless one has the rare luck that very few have had. And I do mean luck: talent is not such a rare thing in the business but opportunities are far from easy to make for oneself! Might have been rewarding to be the much-maligned dentist! Hmmm… is it too late? Is that M9 self-bribe enough?
;-)
Rob C
