Today is Father’s Day in the US. Earlier, I enjoyed a nice quiet dinner with Dad and the family; the folks are doing well although getting on in years. An interesting thing about my Dad is that, though he’s now retired and he was a lawyer and accountant once, he could have been an artist or a writer in his day. He draws better than I do and he writes better too, although I’m a bit more “funky” in my practice of the craft. Dad did give me one gift though, and that’s the gift of curiosity. I believe I inherited my sense of curiosity a bit from my Dad, as he shares that trait.
Curiosity, while it might have killed the cat, is good for the photographer. There’s a native sense of curiosity the drives what we do. I always felt that people became more observant when they are more curious-like they want to see what’s going on so they pay more attention to what’s happening right around them. It’s also the first step in becoming an explorer type. You have to want to see the world, want to see what’s there, want to connect with people, see the sights, share the stories, in order to be an explorer. Let’s face it, if you are a photographer today, you’re basically a digital explorer, even if the only exploring you get to do is locked away in your own studio. We delve. It’s just the nature of the job.
So, I hope all of the Dads out there had a wonderful father’s day. I hope you share gifts with your children, like curiosity, that help forge who they are and who they might become over time. And, I hope you had some great cake or BBQ or whatever else it is you eat on father’s day. Don’t forget to take pictures either because, you know, another little rule of life is that nobody stays young for long. Enjoy it while you can, eh?
Until next time…
PS This one from Iceland. Conversations about clouds.
