How do you know if you are having fun? How do you know you are still engaged with something you felt passionate about? I had a phone conversation with a VSL regular yesterday. He made the observation that I'm always shooting and always posting. The distillation of that comment, in my mind, is...."you must love what you do because you don't have to do it but you seem to love the act of making photographs." And that's about the long and short of it. If you don't feel compelled to go out and do the thing you profess to love you might have fallen out of love. I don't know what the remedy is for that.
Today I went to early swim practice. It was crowded and competitive. Early practice is, on holidays, from 8-9 a.m. I had so much fun and felt so good I stayed around for another hour and did the second practice as well. I'm not training for anything in particular but the vibe in the pool and the attitude of the swimmers was so full of energy that I just didn't want the fun to stop. And I feel exactly the same way about photography. There's so much left to do and so little time ---- relatively speaking.
I'm power washing mold and fungus from the rock walls around the property as well as the pave stone walkways and the other side walks. I'll rush to get through that chore. Why? So I can grab that Lumix S5 and the 28mm f2.8 Zeiss Biogon ZM and go out and make some photographs of another glowering and heat intensive afternoon around town. Who knows what I'll find? Who knows what kinds of photographs I'll bring back. But we'll never know unless I go out and take them.
It might just be the walking that I enjoy. Maybe having a camera is like carrying around a security blanket that lets me pretend to be productive when really I'm just out sampling life. But, if that's the case then I guess I can refer to the resulting photos as collateral happy accidents.
This is the last tranche of Iceland images I'll put up for a while. I think I like looking at them and remembering that it was cold enough on all those days to make me happy I had gloves. Happy I had on boots. Happy to feel the chilly wind on my face. The images remind me that at some point in the future it may again cool down in Austin.
Iceland is on my bucket list for a revisit. But not until the high season of tourism passes and the locals have time to relax and refresh. Late October seems about right...
Saw a bumper sticker last week: "Remember what you wanted to be." It's a wry reminder that we spend a lot of time in life getting sidetracked and locked into situations we never really wanted to be in. If we can remember what we wanted in our youth we can at least keep aiming in that direction.
Another quote that struck me this week: "You don't get old until you start thinking you are old."
Suck it up. Get out there. Systematically erase regret. And...maybe go to Iceland for a while.
16 comments:
There are some of us -- I suspect you are one -- who enjoy competition, as long as it doesn't get crazy. But I'm coming up on eighty, and can't really play golf (my chosen sport, or game) very well anymore, by ordinary club golfing standards. (I once had a handicap of 9, which is pretty good; I'd occasionally creep into the 70s on a round.) What I'd like is to see age-based competitions, and with pretty tight age parameters. 50-57. 58-65. 66-71. 72-77. 78-83. 84 and up. Those are age brackets I came up with through experience. I'd like competitions where you'd really have a chance to win, if you worked at it. Just because we're getting old doesn't mean we don't want to compete, but in golf, and I suspect most sports, septuagenarians just can't compete with guys in their thirties, or even fifties or sixties. For the last ten years or so, about the time I hit the late 60s, I've really felt this ageist thing -- younger people ignore older people, and when I say younger people, I mean people even in their fifties. I suppose I should get used to it, but I don't, and I resent the treatment. I also resent the fact that golf clubs routinely organize all kinds of competitions in which older people simply aren't competitive. Most have a club championship, the member-guest, the couples, the old buddy (member-member) and so on, all won by younger people, often the very same younger people. So those guys are racking up shelves full of trophies, and the old guys stand around with their dicks in their hands. (I don't know what the female equivalent of that expression is, but there probably is one, and I've known some seriously competitive women who also don't have anything to compete in.) You're still young enough that you probably haven't felt the full impact of this, but give it five years, and you will.
JC, you are about to learn why masters swimming rules. In masters all the meets hosted by USMS (United States Masters Swimming) the events are segmented into heats by age group. 50-55, 55-60, 60-65, 65-70 etc. etc. until we get to the 90s and then it's "90 and older." When you compete in meets sometimes they divide up by "best times" instead: you are swimming against people who are close to your times for a particular event and then scored by age group for final winners by age strata. So, if I have a good 100 freestyle and at 67 can still get close to 1:05 for the 100 I might be in a heat with 30, 40 or 50 year olds all of whom has basically the same qualifying times. That makes meets, the bedrock of competition, more of less age neutral. You are swimming against people who have qualified with a time that is close to your qualifying time. Or you are swimming with competitors in your age segment. In the finals of National Meets all of the age groups over 50 compete against other people who are within the same five year age grouping. At local and regional meets it's generally segmented by recorded, official, previous best times. Heats by time for some meets, heats by age at others.
In our pool and in most masters programs the lanes are not split up by age but are split up according to how fast one can consistently repeat 100s (as a base measure). I swam in a middling lane today. I was by far the oldest person in the lane of five people but all of us, from the 28 year old to the 40 and 50 year olds and myself (almost 68) swam the workout on the same intervals. I wasn't always in a middling lane. 25 years ago I was in the fastest lanes. Over time, like everyone else, I've slowed down. And I've progressively moved down about three lanes from my peak. But I still have four more lanes to go (smiley emoji needed). But even when I hit the slowest lane there will be people to swim with and people to share the lane with. And we'll try our best to beat the people in the lane next to us all through practice.
If you are the fastest person in your age group in an event in a sanctioned meet you might come in third or fourth or fifth in your heat but your time will be measured against the people in your age group and trophies will be handed out accordingly. It's a very fair system
Oldest two swimmers in the pool today were two women in their mid to late 70's who still kick ass. They started early and never learned how to slow down. Well, they are slower than they were 20 years ago but still kicking butt and still making it through every practice.
Masters swimming was invented expressly to keep people swimming competitively up through their 90s and to provide meets that will allow them to compete. I photographed the 2007 USMS national meet because it was held in Austin at the University of Texas at Austin pool. My favorite memory was watching the mens 90 and over 50 yard butterfly race. A stroke most humans will never be able to swim 50 yards off!!! The six contestants ranged from 92 to 97. Because of balance issues they had the option of having a helper steady them on the racing blocks for the starts, or to start from the water. All turned in good times and none were DQ'ed for stroke infractions. When I see guys like that or guys who are coming up on 80 still out playing 18 holes and demanding more opportunities for peer competition it makes me very dismissive of people who conjure up all kinds of excuses never even to try to get into shape. Always looking for a magic diet or other passive routine that will fix the dreaded results of a life of sloth. But that's just my opinion...
And I refuse to hew to a politically correct line just to spare some tender feelings...
In the second paragraph I am referring to how we divide up the pool at daily practices. Not meets.
I respect walkers, joggers, golfers, tennis players, racquet ball players, cyclists, runners, water polo players, swimmers who do laps for fitness or competitive swimmers who want to go fast. Anything that keeps us moving and, with the more socialization involved the better.
People whose sport is testing out the Naugahyde on their Laz-E-Boy recliners? Not so much....
I didn't know that about swimming, but I think that's great. I haven't seen it in other sports, especially team sports, though that might be because you can't get enough old people for two teams to face off against each other. Most older people, even those with favored sports, just quit. I once saw a softball game between two older teams in the Villages, down in Florida, and the sad thing was that most of the spectators were laughing at the players who were screwing up. You want to do it, but you want to do it seriously, if you're a real competitor. In golf, handicaps don't really make up for differences. Two widely separated players just sort of annoy each other most of the time. Older tennis players are a whole 'nother thing, since most of the serious competitors are really pretty physically hurt by the time they get to their 70s. I know a really hard core tennis player, here in Santa Fe, who has had three knee replacements, and the scars on his knees make him look like he was in a war.
This whole "old competition" thing, the fact that older people still want to compete, I think is behind the fast rise of pickle ball. I think the game is sort of dumb (a columnist for the Washington Post said that any sport you can get good at between breakfast and lunch isn't a real sport) but I know a pickle ball enthusiast in her 70s, and she is a killer on the court. Which I also think is great.
I have to think more seriously about swimming. I do have access to a couple of pools.
The group from Iceland is a very nice set of images and reminds us all to revisit our older work once in a while.
I ran into a friend at the farmers' market Saturday, and during our conversation, something came up about learning Spanish. I noted how I'd tried to learn enough (unsuccessfully) to cover the basics before a trip to Cuba six years ago. Of course he wanted to know why I would go to Cuba, and we talked about the photo opportunities there.
The conversation got me thinking about those photos, and I revisited my favorites later in the day. I'm almost ashamed to admit I had only been a good enough editor to whittle the set down to 168 photos at the time. Unfortunately, my "tougher" editing on Saturday only knocked out another 50. I guess that means I enjoyed the experience and the photography, and it certainly rekindled my desire to return.
On the "staying in motion" topic, although never an athlete, I've always tried to stay in reasonable condition with consistent daily long/brisk walks. A few months ago, I returned to cycling after a 10-year hiaitus since my new small town is reasonably safe for long rides. At 59, I may not be as good as I was in my younger years but can still knock out 70 miles a week and still easily fit in jeans from 20 years ago. My goal is to still fit in them 10 years from now. :)
Doug, no one has to be good at anything. As long as they do it anyway. Your goals are good, fun ones. And just as effective.
N.B. at the start of October there will be 12 hours of daylight in Iceland, by the end it of October it will be only 8 ...
Heidfirst, Yes, that's the way daylight works as we head toward winter. That gives you some dark morning drive times to get to photo worthy destinations, more dramatic and slanted light than during Summer. Some drives back to your hotel in the dark. A leisurely dinner and then much more opportunities for "the northern lights."
What's the issue?
As a senior doing sporting activities, my three word mantra is DON'T GET HURT. As many of us can attest, healing from injury takes so much longer when we are older. Swimming seems perfect in that unless you do something really stupid, it's pretty hard to get hurt.
I can hardly wait for the snowflakes to start flying again so that I can lace up my snowboard boots. I no longer take that same risks that I did when I was 30, but I find I still enjoy myself almost as much by focusing on my technique and appreciating the beauty around me.
As with swimming, so with cycling. Competitions are divided with into age groups with 5 year increments.
I did some reasonably serious cycling in my 20s, once even winning in a team triahlon. Now I'm back on my bike, coming in a spectacular last in my most recent cyclocross race.
At 53 I'm nowhere the oldest in my club. I totally get what you like about swimming at your club.
Nigel from Hamburg
Kirk, I was just pointing out that the daylight length is rapidly shortening at that time of year, much more so at that latitude than in Austin & what difference there would be depending upon when exactly in October you choose to go. October is also Iceland's wettest month so take a waterproof. ;)
As someone who lives in the world's most northerly non-Arctic nation (Scotland) I know well what this all means ...
+1 on Iceland in October/November
In addition to the great lighting from the sun’s lower angle, the Reykjavík nightlife comes alive in the fall, including a fantastic music festival with over 100 Icelandic acts and a vibrant theater scene that will challenge even the most jaded audiences.
The weather is a wildcard, of course, but that is true almost anywhere these days.
Headfirst, Thanks for the clarification. I got it. Appreciate the response. KT
Re your 9 Sept post, that you pulled: I didn't think that it sucked at all. I read it on my phone a few hours ago, and was disappointed when I looked for it at my desk.
Re being the oldest person in the room: Celebrate it! Some of the people you worked with may not have the good fortune to make it that far.
I'm finding being 81 a bit fun.
Did your post about the food job disappear again? I read it once, came back this morning to look at it again, but it's not there.
What happened?
Love most of these pictures but the one that stops me is the one of buildings in front of snow-covered mountains. It is stunning. Thank you
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