I feel good!

I should feel pretty bad right now.  I should be close to death.  Well, not literally death, but pretty exhausted.  You see, I started my Saturday by waking up at 6:45am and heading to my first shoot at 7:30am...  my first of three shoots.  

7:30am doesn't sound that rough?  Well, that's not the big deal.  You see, I should feel bad because I didn't stop shooting until 9:30pm tonight.  That's fourteen hours of work.  Fourteen hours on my feet, non-stop.  I had about thirty minutes of down time in between each of the shoots, so really it was more like thirteen hours of actual work, but you get the picture.  

Oh, and add the fact that I didn't get to bed Friday night (well, more like Saturday morning) until 2am, thanks to some late night shoots.  Yup, I have had very little sleep and a whole lot of work this weekend...  

Anyway, I don't feel bad at all.  I feel absolutely wonderful for some reason.  I think it's due to my post-work events.  After 9:30 rolled around and I packed up my camera, I headed down to Deep Ellum.  A friend of mine - Randy - was having a sort of going away party at the barry Whistler gallery.  He worked at a local newspaper for over thirty years and was recently let go thanks to budget cuts/the economy/bad luck.  

I've known him for the ten years that I've been freelancing for the paper, and he's been a great friend to talk to and an influence on my photography.  We share a lot of friends and coworkers in common, so the party was sort of like a family reunion.  It felt so good talking with these people that I don't get to see very often anymore (thanks to digital photography and the internet, there's just not a need for face to face interaction with clients these days).  

I wound up staying until midnight, talking with old friends.  I eventually made it back to the car and headed home.  However, I noticed something as I went up Elm Street.  There were four people inside Kettle Art Gallery, even though it closed a couple hours earlier.  I just had to stop and say hello.  

I went inside and talked with Frank and his daughter, and met two new people.  We wound up talking about art, Deep Ellum, music, and other stuff for thirty minutes or so.  I'd seen Frank's name around town for years...  practically forever.  However, I didn't actually get to know Frank until last year.  He is such a great guy and it was so good getting to talk with him again.  

I got home around 1am, which made for one REALLY long day.  But, like I said, I don't feel bad at all.  My feet hurt like mad, but my heart and soul feel so lively and energetic after getting to see and talk with so many friends.  I'm so lucky to be in an industry with so many great peers.  

People Like Randy, Allison, Courtney, Michael, Mike, Rex, Mona, Evans, Frank, Amber, and many others that I got to spend time with tonight - they all make the local creative community here in Dallas so special.  How could I not feel great tonight?!?  

Enough rambling.  I'll go back to regular blogs about more practical photo topics.  I just needed to point out how great the people who actually make up the Dallas photo community really are.  They make being a photographer fun... even after a fourteen hour work day.