TWICE IN ONE WEEK! This is crazy exciting for me on the inside...so earlier in the week one of my favorite photography podcasts picked one of my images to critique. That was my oak tree image that I was using to bring attention to the non-native borer that is threatening to rid california of all of its oaks. It was featured on the April 1 episode of the Digital Photo Experience podcast and that blew my mind.
Well, earlier today, I was sitting here editing photos for work, listening to another of my favorite photography podcasts, this one is the April 5 episode of Frederick Van Johnson's 'This Week In Photo,' and all of a sudden, at about the 51:04 mark, I hear my name (butchered, but they gave it a good effort) when they announce their first ever photo critique on the show. They picked my image 'a slice of yosemite layer cake,' and they dug it. They had professional photographer guests Jeffrey Totaro & "Fro Knows Photo" Jared Polin all give their thoughts, and it was all positive. Frederick went so far as to say that he could see the image printed large and framed on a wall with a nice light. I mean, I can't think of a higher compliment.
I know it may sound like I'm boasting or whatever, but I'm not. I'm just genuinely hyped. Please understand, this is the first time in my life that I'm doing something that I actually feel I'm supposed to be doing. Like everything I've done before has been leading me to that thing that just feels right and it's starting to come together that way, and at age (almost) 36, that's pretty damn exciting for me. While the next steps once, very recently, felt ridiculously daunting, they're all of a sudden starting to feel exciting and encouraging instead.
It's always been an ultimate goal to help people that need it and be able to lend my skills to try to help make things even a little bit better than they are for those in unfortunate situations and regions and areas in life, and I feel that I'm getting closer to a point where that can become a reality. Using the skills I've honed over the past 15 years - video, writing, publishing, and photography - and somehow bringing it all together into something that actually makes some sort of a difference. I don't know exactly where and what this is going to lead me, but for the first time in perhaps, well, ever, I feel like at least a path, albeit a rocky one, is being laid out in front of me. So long as I don't think about it too much and just keep paying attention to doing what I feel is right in the moment - right now - perhaps, perhaps, the rest will sort itself out.
There I go thinking about it too much again. Ah hell.