I was doing a lot of work for the theater and we were shooting a bunch of different images around Austin to promote the theme: "Keep Austin Weird." The writer thought that keeping a pet goat in a residential neighborhood qualified as weird and so I went off to get the pair to agree to collaborate with me. The human agreed but I think the goat had some reservations. If his owner wasn't holding on to him tightly the goat had a consistent desire to rush over to me and butt me with his horns. Other than that he was right charming...
It was one of part of a seemingly endless assignment that mostly consisted of getting into the car, then out of the car, building a quick rapport for a half hour and then heading out to the next photo opportunity. My favorite subject was an electrical engineer who made an entire garden out of dolls and doll's heads. Since he was an electrical engineer he thought it would be super cool to put red LEDs in each of the doll's eyes. At night his "doll garden" looked pretty freaky. Like something out of a horror movie. Lots of sinister doll faces with glowing eyes, all staring, unblinking, at you.
According to the story the engineer welcomed a new family who had moved in next door by turning all the dolls' heads toward the neighbor's house. Didn't take the neighbors long to get that privacy fence built between the properties.
I find it amazing in retrospect that I was able to spend so much time having so much fun with photography while at the same time buying a big house, keeping the family fed and healthy, and saving up for the inevitable rainy day. Or retirement. Whichever comes first. I always thought I'd have to do something boring and soul crushing for work to make it into the "good life." Seems all one really needs to do is learn how to help other people have fun too. Who knew?
Fun all around today without even touching a camera. Swimming, weights at the gym, lunch with a friend at Whole Foods, the shameless purchase of a pecan pie there as well. Pushing out some blog posts. Making sure the comments are flowing like fine wine and ordering just one more Nanlite LED fixture from B&H. When B. gets home from San Antonio we'll head out for some really good Chinese food. All good here. Wouldn't want to trade with anyone!
6 comments:
i am Canadian of Filipino heritage but i have always loved Chinese food. It amazes me how malleable it is, similar to Italian food it is worldwide and the "localized" versions and the so-called authentic versions happily exist side by side. My favourite dish is mapo tofu including the authentic version :-) which burns my face off, the westernized versions (even the one with peas!!) and the vegan and the veggie versions. #ymmv Enjoy your Chinese food!
I have been feeling the need for more new and fun blog posts today. Thanks for filling the need! I feel much better now.
That's one mean looking goat...
Austin makes a brief appearance as back drop in the 2014 movie Chef. Part of the film is a road movie and they stop in Austin to sell Cubano sandwiches from their gourmet food truck.
When your life is mostly swimming, photographing and being in love how can you possibly bitch about stuff? Thanks Jon!
You know you have a good job/career when you find that it's so much fun that you have to resist the urge go in on the weekends!
It's so hard to find Chinese food in my area that isn't a salt bomb or saturated with oil, either of which make me feel pretty terrible an hour later.
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