About this time last year I has a powerful itch to write, to Blog, to muse out load about life. I posted something every few days for the first part of January and then, to put it kindly, the wheels fell off.
Why? Well, I was recovering from being poisoned in Cambodia, I enrolled myself in five photography courses in Langara's Photography Certificate program and I began training in earnest for my eleventh consecutive Vancouver Marathon. Oh, there was also something about a girl, rather a rather astonishing woman I'd met in 2010, but that's a whole other story...
In my usual fashion, I bit off a bit more than I could comfortably chew.
If 2010 was all about travel and self-exploration, then 2011 was more about taking stock and re-grouping.
I seriously underestimated the toll that my being poisoned on a trip to Southeast Asia in December would take. More than a year later I am still suffering from long term effects.
Photography-wise, I took 17 (seventeen) courses at Langara, and got all 'A's and a couple of B+s. I am now working on my Graduate Portfolio of 20 (twenty) photographs that I will need to submit in order to get my certificate.
I also took a number of Master Class workshops at VPW (Vancouver Photo Workshops), taught by Joe McNally, Ralph Gibson, and Greg Gorman. All were useful, insightful and helpful in their own way. mostly in terms of being able to observe world-class photographers at work crafting images from scratch. Ralph Gibson attracted to the best photographers. The McNally and Gorman workshops attracted students who really shouldn't have been there because of their lack of technical knowledge. They would have been better served by spending their money to learn their craft. And by reading their camera manuals...
All this photography, plus the down turn in the economy and me scrambling more than usual for work that would pay the bills, didn't leave me much time to pause for reflection and genuflection in a Blog. I did run my Vancouver Marathon, but fought off injuries and was unable to qualify for Boston. Then, in late July I tore a hip flexor and had to stop running all together. In mere months I allowed my weight to get away from me and ballooned from 180 to 200 pounds in just a few months. Oh, comfort food!
And life on the personal front is still far too painful to even jest about just yet. Suffice it to say, ouch! 2011 hurt like a bitch, to use the vernacular. oh, comfort food!
2012 lays before me, offering up my twelfth Vancouver Marathon, I am working on my Graduation Portfolio for Langara, I am hoping to launch a new website dedicated to my photography in the next sixty days -- www.hemingsonphotography.com -- and I have The Tattoo Project book coming out this Fall.
And, I am doing research into launching a new business this year, one revolving around photography and travel.
As for this Blog, well, the new Hemingson Photography website has a Blog built into it, so it was time for me to climb back into the saddle.
