Both of my guys, Pedro (25) and Tony(17) played the same three sports: basketball, hockey, and soccer and each of them were really good at two of them. Pedro: Soccer and hockey. Tony: Basketball and soccer. Pedro was an excellent hockey goalie and a very good soccer player. Pedro still plays indoor soccer and had a game last night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to his too or I would have ended up back in Charleston at midnight or 1:00 AM.

Tony has always, and I mean, always been a competitor. From the time that he could understand what soccer was he wanted to play against his brother and would get so upset if he didn’t win. Now, this is a 4 or 5 year old wanting to win against a 12 year old! In fact, he was so competitive that when he and Pedro would play street hockey, Tony would occasionally ‘accidentally’ hit Pedro in one or both shins in order to score a goal! We still laugh about that. I had to have a number of talks to Tony about fairness!

One time he came home and was pretty upset. He was mad because the kids down the street wouldn’t play with him. When I asked him why, he said that he didn’t know. After I asked the kids why, they said because he cheated and always changed the rules of the game while they were playing so that he could win! Sigh … another conversation.

When Tony first started playing soccer, he was 5. It was funny to watch because he was all about business, even as a 5 year old. While the other kinds were meandering about, kicking ant hills, picking flowers or clover during the game in which they were playing, Tony was scoring goals. It was fun to watch. He played soccer from 1st grade all the way until 6th grade. He also played competitive soccer for a couple of years, which I think burned him out on soccer. They would play or practice 50 weeks/year.

Tony hasn’t had the desire to play soccer in a while. His focus has been totally on basketball; however, this year, in order to get in shape for basketball season, he decided to go back and play soccer, as a senior. He’s become a starter and the go-to guy on the team! Say what?!

I’ve not seen him play in 6 years. As I was in Charlotte for a few moments yesterday, having just returned from Dallas and on my way to Charleston, I decided to stop by the school and check out the game. Pedro came by after work, too. Pedro remarked that it looked odd to see Tony playing soccer and that he looked too big, as we were both used to our memories of him in a much smaller uniform, 6 years ago.

Now, to be sure, he didn’t get all of this athletic prowess from me. I was NOT an athlete, to be sure. Sure, I threw shot put and discus on the track team, tried my hand at American football (didn’t like it), bowled, and did photography, but never excelled at any sport, save for bowling, which I heard is not a sport because you have to rent shoes!

Anyway, it was a good day to get out the D300, blow off the dust, adjust the settings, and try my hand at shooting soccer. Certainly, I didn’t do a great job, I was out of practice in shooting this sport, but I got a few keepers. In the end, or team won, 2-1, and Tony scored one goal, pictured here. Basketball season is almost here! Practice starts in about 3 weeks! I’m excited for him.

I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days now, perhaps a couple of weeks. I wasn’t sure what to write because, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure about what I thought about it. The final catalyst was a comment made by Julie:

p.s. your poetry shots are different from anything else, and they have a magic to them. Is that just from that particular scene, or do you find you’re getting the same effect with everything you’ve taken on that camera?

To my recollection, I first encountered the word ‘talisman’ in a Stephen King novel. I’m not sure which one, but that isn’t very important. A talisman is an object, usually an inscribed ring or stone, that brings good luck to the owner or keeper of said object. In thinking back about my poetry reading photos, I wondered did I get them because of the camera? That is to say, did I believe that I could get good, interesting photographs because of the camera that I held? Did it impart any magical qualities onto my abilities? Did it change my belief system, if but for a few moments, and make it such that I could these photos? Or, perhaps, was I just in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment, in the right mood?

Certainly, a new piece of equipment can inspire one to go out and take photos, but are those photos necessarily different, other than in some technical aspects, more pixels, better color rendition, etc? In certain situations, the use of a certain piece of equipment can mean the difference between getting the shot or not, but I’m talking, I think, about something more … inspiration. I might ascribe the ‘success’ or differentness of the photos in part to the camera that I held, which allowed me to be stealthy, but I think that it is more of where I am in life at this moment. I’m interested, mostly, in rolls and personae. Therefore, my focus (no pun intended) has shifted to people and their interactions in their environment as a way to understanding that mysterious ‘Self’, my rolls and relationships.

As you can see, I’ve shot almost all B&W film for the past 5 months. It’s not likely to change anytime soon as it seems to be the right medium for that expression, or perhaps it is that I like the cameras and their legacy of capturing these types of shots or moments, yet, it may be that these cameras do possess some talisman-like qualities that change my belief system and allow me to capture such moments.

Lastly, I might ask, does the magic of the photos come from me or from the eyes of the viewer because, on some level, the photo might resonate with them.

Sweets!
I was browsing through some previous posts earlier today and noticed that one of them had nearly 900 views in less than two weeks. Now, for this blog, that’s impressive. Usually, a post will accumulate a couple of hundred views, 400 at most.

I guess that it depends on what the topic is; however, the one about High ISO not only came in with the most number of views, it got the most number of comments that I’ve ever had for one post, 18! I’m still small potatoes around here, so numbers like that still impress me.

Sometimes when I’m trying to think of a title for the post, I want to strike a balance between relevance, cleverness, and appeal. I figure that if it is an appealing topic, folks will stop by and have a read. The other day when I was looking at those “Lot for sale” signs, indicating that the builders had basically given up, I thought of calling the title: Calling it quits! Then, I thought, that would get a lot of interest, perhaps, because maybe people would think that I was calling it quits, which I’m not. It would have been funny, though.

Certainly, I am not deluded to think that my little corner of cyberspace is very much important at all and actually calling it quits would be meaningless in the grand scheme of things. It is, I hope, just a fun place to hang out, share thoughts, and have a good time. I certainly hope to keep posting for a long time.

I don’t know if you are a Jim Carrey fan or not, but there was one movie that he did I really liked. At the time, I thought that it was just pure fun; however, later, as in this morning, it took on greater meaning as I thought about this post. The name of the movie is The Mask. In it, Jim Carrey plays a character named Stanley Ipkiss: Here is a brief synopsis:

Stanley Ipkiss is a bank clerk that is an incredibly nice man. Unfortunately, he is too nice for his own good and is a pushover when it comes to confrontations. After one of the worst days of his life, he finds a mask that depicts Loki, the Norse night god of mischief. Now, when he puts it on, he becomes his inner self: a cartoony romantic wild man.

This movie probably would have be more appropriately named: The unmasking.
I really like Jungian psychology. I find it interesting and it rings true to my heart. He talks lots about shadows and about personae. That is, we all have multiple masks that we wear. Often times we become confused when we believe the mask to be who we are, instead of a roll that we play. I wear a number of masks: Software Developer, father, husband, friend, photographer, etc.

Carl Jung said:

The persona is a complicated system of relations between individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual.

Believe it or not, I’m not, in my opinion, an outgoing person(ality). I have no problem with lots of alone time. However, it is rather odd that when I pick up a camera, I become this more outgoing, chatty, open person. It just seems to happen. It happened again this evening. I’ve found that my cure for the blues is to grab the camera, go to downtown Charleston and walk around shooting photos. So, I went today.

My first stop was East Bay Coffee. This was where the poetry reading was held last week. I stopped in for one of their delicious scones and a glass of iced tea. While in there, I was chatting with the the lovely lady pictured here who works there. She commented on my cool, old-looking camera. I was touting the Olympus 35 LC today. Yes, it is old. It was made in 1965! After a trip to camerarepair.com, it’s in tip-top shape and working well. Anyway, I struck up a conversation with her and she told me about her having been in a commercial back in Philadelphia. At that time, she had been working in tourism and she wondered how many photos of her existed in complete strangers’ photo albums. She said that she’d been photographed hundreds of times. So, since she was so used to it, I continued to snap away!

While sitting at the table enjoying my iced tea, I happened to look out of the window and see Justin riding down the street. Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch up to him. Just was was the guy that I talked about in this post. Not to fear though, I did catch up with him later on another street! After I finished my tea, I said goodbye and headed on down Bay street looking for some shots.

I ran into a cute, vivacious, 20-something young lady named Coco. She was working for Blue Green Resorts. Her job was to stand in the doorway and offer to set people up for tours, etc. We chatted for about 30 or 40 minutes and she told me how rude people could be and that they often ignored her or were downright rude. She said that she didn’t care, though. She’d developed a think skin. She said that it was made worthwhile by meeting cool people like me. Awww shucks!!!

Off I went on another adventure. I set off to find Justin. I knew that he usually parked his bicycle rickshaw on Bay Street, near the market. He wasn’t there. I kept heading down Bay St. and within 2 blocks, I found him. He recognized me immediately, came over to shake my hand, asked about my wife and two sons and if Pedro had found a job, etc. Of course, I asked about him and his jobs and found that he had taken on yet another job! 3 jobs, now. However, the newest job is teaching creative writing at a high school for 3 hours per week! After I chatted with him for about 20 minutes, I headed on home.

Although I truly had a great time, now it’s time for some ‘me’ time. Time to recharge. That took a lot out of me, but not in a negative way because I got so much from it. Oddly, Charleston feels like home. I’m becoming a fixture. People are starting to know me and I them. Had you told me that more than a year ago, I certainly would not have believed you! Now, when people ask me where I’m from, I simply say Summerville, SC. I don’t go on with the Charlotte/Charleston explanation. I feel like I really do live here.