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Getting a Second Wind
sean mcclelland
A week-and-a-half ago, I was cruising through another day of riveting ed tech work at the office, when I happened to glance over at my Tweetdeck window and saw this tweet by 500px. "WHAAAaaat?!" I said out loud. Eric Paré was, and is, one of my favorite photographers. (For proof, check my recommendations page ;-)). Then, I looked at the date of the workshop, and saw that it was in FOUR HOURS. "SHiiiiiit!" I said, this time to myself. "How did I not know about this until now?!" A few instant messages to my very nice boss, a lot of scrambling, and two train rides later, I was sitting in a classroom at Adobe HQ with Eric Paré, Kim Henry, and Russell Brown. COOL.
What I haven't mentioned yet, is that prior to that day, I hadn't done much of anything with photography for... so long, I can't even remember. Well, I had played with my Fuji X-E2 here and there, snapping vacay pics and capturing randomness from life... but nothing, artful. Nothing that really scratched my creative itch (or do you itch a scratch?). And this lack of photo-creativity in my life was, well, it was making me REALLY cranky... like, for reals. I was losing sleep over it. Sure, I tried to snap out of the funk a few times, but nothing really worked, until this random, lucky encounter with Pare and Henry.
The images above were taken during a photo outing that a group of us workshop-attendees went on a few days after. We visited a few locations in Marin, including Rodeo Beach. It. Was. Great. I was back, shooting, and with other photographers. And not just any photographers... talented photographers, some of which are local. It took me 4 years, but I finally have some like-minded photog friends to hang with in San Francisco! There's nothing quite like geeking out with your kind, learning and creating images until you're ready to pass out from exhaustion.
An interesting side-effect to these serendipitous encounters, is that I discovered that I was the last man on Earth who wasn't Instagram-ing. But now I am, thanks to the encouragement (peer pressure) of my new friends, and I'm already enjoying it. Old dog? Meet new tricks. Good dog. Ruff! (Click here to join me on Instagram.)
I'm excited again about photography, and about being an artist. Thank you, Russell Brown for bringing Eric to SF. Thank you Eric for being so helpful, and encouraging. Also thank you to Kim Henry for being such a graceful subject, and to my partner (talented in her own right) for joining in the fun and driving us geeks around town!
I'm also heading to my 3rd Photoshop World in a few days, and my 1st Burning Man in a few weeks. I will be sharing tips, tricks, and images from those events in the coming weeks. No more funk, I'm back in the game, again!
Additional links:
- Help bring Eric to Creative Live: http://creativelive.wufoo.com/forms/q7x3q7/
- Eric's workshops: https://ericpare.com/learn
- Instagram: giggleriver2
- Instagram: gettyphotography
- Instagram: misslexy76
- Instagram: letsnotgetcocky
- Instagram: eskapeproduction
PS: My partner and I told Eric and Kim that we were inspired to try AcroYoga. Wish us luck, I think... we're going to need it :-).