I really am getting tired of writing about people dying.
One of my greatest capabilities is the ability to read. Many people share this capability with me, but this lack of uniqueness does not affect my gratitude for having the ability (an interesting concept which is worth consideration). There are a number of people who deserve credit for helping me develop that capability but the Stratemeyer Syndicate (Howard Garis, W. Bert Foster, John Duffield, and Tom Mitchell -- all writing under the pseudonym “Victor Appelton” -- the authors of the Tom Swift series) and Arthur C. Clarke certainly are at the top of the list. I devoured books by these people, all had a technological backdrop and seemed utterly plausible at the time -- and since many of their forecasts (like Clarke’s predictions about satellite communications) have materialized I suppose that was an accurate assessment. They fueled my imagination and, in the process, created a reader. Thank you Arthur Clarke.
(By the way, 25 of the original Tom Swift books are available for free download from the Guttenberg Project - under Victor Appleton.)
On March 12, 2008 I noted that I had just had an eye exam and remembered that when I was in the fifth grade I got my first pair of glasses and I remember the experience vividly. All of a sudden there was a whole new world out there, it was incredible. No amount of “four-eyes” name calling would ever get me to give up my visual aids.
When I first started to work with a macro lens the world opened up in the same way that it had in the fifth grade. I began seeing things I had not seen before, my focus was drawn to objects I had never paid attention to. Later, with video equipment the experience was the same, but different. It was not that I saw new things it is that I saw them differently, I began to really appreciate the concept of time and motion and the perspective that they add to any image. The photo to the right is me with tripod and camera in Queensland, Australia (of the thousands and thousands of photographs I have this is one of a handful which show me).
I have always been torn between the two, the still image and the moving image -- and I am so pleased that my vision is clear with aid.