when i say things and see things

I'm starting to get to the place where I've been aiming for some time. I am producing some work that I am happy to show. The picture above, a daytime visit to an Owen Sound drive-in, is part of my roadtrip project. I'm not sure what to call it anymore because the intent and the end results did not match up at all. In the meantime, though, I make my way through and find the best of what I can and try to turn it into something else.

Making the best of things is all I really know how to do with any expertise. Despite any well-meaning protestations to the contrary I do wonder if this is all coming just a little bit too late. Having never gone to school for anything even resembling visual arts (1 university art history class which, to my memory at this point, focused solely on the religious allegorical nature of the paintings of the Group of Seven) I don't know where to place myself. Every time I read about another "up and coming" photographer at least a decade younger than I, who usually boasts publication in at least 3 major US news or culture magazines, it becomes apparent that I'm working completely in the dark. No connections. No guidance. No supportive community of peers.

When it REALLY comes down to it I do this because I love it and there is personal reward in the effort. But, the chance that I'll always be doing this in my spare time and trudging off to a passionless office to sit and atrophy every day looms ever more ominously. At the very least, I can find solace in the apparent truth that I will never relax enough to be happy with that existence! So, a 50% chance that I fail and grow old in an ergonomic chair and a 95% chance that I will be miserable doing it actually makes for some compelling odds for arguing to keep my nose the grindstone and maybe get a cool hat to disguise my advanced years.