Even Back-burner Dreams Can Bring Rewards Later In Life

Last week I noted that there have been two constants in my life: music and photography. Certainly music was a much bigger constant.

That does not diminish my love of photography and how much it has filled my life. However, until my early 20s photography seemed to move in and out of my life.

I read a lot of comic books as a young boy. Advertised inside and sometimes on the back covers of comic books was an “opportunity” to sell Cloverine Salve and earn credits to use to redeem products from their catalogue.

When I was 10-years-old I sent away to try this “opportunity.” I got the box of salve a few weeks later along with the catalogue of items I could work for. The only thing that interested me was a camera.

We lived in Mt. Baldy Village at the time and it turns out that the salve worked pretty well on mosquito bites. So I easily sold all the cans in the first box and sent away for a second box. I needed to sell about 3 boxes for enough credits to claim the camera.

It took awhile longer to sell the second and third boxes but I did and before the summer was over I received the camera in the mail. It wasn’t much of a camera. Mostly plastic parts, it wasn’t the highest quality camera, I’m sure.

Shortly afterward we moved down the hill to Ontario. With the camera, I was a big hit with the girls in my neighborhood who loved to play fashion model and pose for me. I shot a few rolls of film and convinced my parents to get them developed.

I vaguely remember the square 2-1/2”x2-1/2” black & white prints of these young girls posing provocatively in their swim suits. I gave most of them away to the models. They loved them.

The big problem was that film, processing and prints were too expensive for me and my parents were not about to continue their initial generosity and subsidize my new found love.

So I had to put away the camera and somewhere along the line I lost it completely.

Obviously that wasn’t the end of my interest in photography. It came in and out of my life over the years, with the longest stretch coming while I worked as a newspaper reporter and photojournalist.

Years later, with the advent of digital, I bought myself one of the early Sony digital cameras. It saved the low resolution images on floppy discs which was extremely convenient.

I found myself shooting much more again but this time it wasn’t photojournalism and wasn’t to tell a story. I also found myself looking for my artistic eye. That is a big change from photojournalism and I have found it to be a bigger challenge than I first expected.

Frankly, it is easy to just shoot, particularly with digital, and just gather images on the computer. They are nice to look at and sometimes show to friends. But I wanted to do more with my photography.

So last year I decided to challenge myself and entered some images in the Los Angeles County and San Mateo County fairs.

It really is kind of scary to enter contests. I didn’t know if my work was good enough for the competitions and feared it would either be rejected outright – a feeling I’m sure is not unique to me.

Nonetheless, I took the plunge just the same.

The L.A. County Fair is juried, with a panel reviewing all entries and deciding which are worthy of being exhibited. I remember a few months after submitting my entries getting an email notifying me that two of my images had been accepted. I felt elated. Acceptance was prize enough.

At the San Mateo County Fair, the competition is different and all entries are exhibited. Once delivered, a panel of judges awards prizes for entries in each category. I entered 10 images last year and five of them garnered awards, including a Blue Ribbon for color portraiture.

Since then I find myself immersed in photography. I don’t go anywhere without a camera and my eye has continued to improve, as has my processing skills.

This year I’m really taking a plunge. I decided to enter the California State Fair Fine Arts competition. I submitted 6 images. The fine arts competition isn’t just for photography.

The first phase of the competition is juried – images are judged by a panel and they decide in the first phase which art works are good enough just to be exhibited. This competition is tough. Of all the categories – paintings, sculpture, photography and several other forms – only 185 entries will be accepted for exhibition.

Unfortunately, I found myself shut out in the first round. So the second round, actually submitting framed photos for further judging, isn't going to happen for me this year. As discouraging as that was I will try again next year.

Plus, there still is the San Mateo County Fair competition.

After my success last year at the San Mateo County Fair, I’m really going all out this year and I’ve entered 35 images in 18 categories – categories that include portraits, abstracts, birds, domestic animals, landscapes, and several others.

Certainly I have high hopes in this competition. The quality of other entrants is high. But my work has been improving and, even if I don’t receive any awards, I feel proud of the body of work I have entered.

Photography now probably plays a bigger role in my life than music. I haven’t turned my back on music, but I spend much more time working on my photography. And, because of my music, I actually have a huge subject area available to me – music photography.

I’ve taken to using my skills to shoot my musician friends and their bands. This kind of shooting holds its own challenges and stretches me as a photographer.

The way I see it, while photography ended up on a back-burner many times over the years in my life it remained something I felt passion about. The important thing is that I never let it go completely.

That’s the thing about dreams, they can be revived at any time. I do not have aspirations to become another Ansel Adams or Annie Liebovitz. However, I do aspire to be the best photography I can be.

I get a lot of satisfaction from my photography and I’ve taken some shots that I sometimes look at and cannot believe I captured them.

Many of my photos adorn the walls of my home. My wife comments many times to me that it’s like we have our own art gallery.

So dreams may come and go but the beauty is that, given the desire, we can always revive them. I don’t think anyone can ask for anything better than that.