this is garlan.

Born in 1929, Garlan is 83 years old. The step-dad of the wife of my former employer (confusing, I know), I was asked to take some shots of him for them to have as keepsakes.

In my short time spent chatting with him every time I've been around him, I've learned he was a sailor and an adventurer to be envious of. Even within the past 20 years he was still living on a sailboat, visiting exotic locations that some of us only daydream about seeing one day. 

You all know how much I love the character in the faces of older men, and Garlan is no exception. I only hope I was able to even somewhat capture the sparkle still in his eyes.

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don't go chasing waterfalls.

I know that this is completely unprecedented for me, but I decided to post another one of my "assisted self portraits" from my trip to Canada last year. Using the same technique as my previously posted photo…I got all my settings and framing worked out and then stuck my camera in the hands of my buddy Jeff, who had hiked up to the waterfalls with me. As you can see from the photo, I was ill-prepared wardrobe-wise for hiking. This year, I plan to be better equipped. At least I was fashionable, which makes for all-around better artsy self-portraits like this.

stopping in canada.

I did a project last year with a friend where we took weekly self portraits and posted them every Friday. Sadly, it tapered off and I was unable to post a few of my favorites that I took for the project while on a trip to Canada. I'm gearing up for another trip up north again this year and was reminded of those shots. This is my favorite of them. I actually made my friend Jeff pull off the highway to explore this little area for some photos. I'm glad I did, because I walked away beaming that I'd gotten my shot. Since I was without a tripod or remote, I chose all my settings and got my framing all worked out and then set the camera in the hands of Jeff to act as a human tripod and he shot off a few rounds before I decided he'd probably gotten something usable. I can't wait to see snow again. My soul is ready for some real winter.