I should write more often, I’m completely aware of this. . .sorry to the few readers I have that drop by momentarily. Thanks for the faith.

This past week there was a photographers convention here in Arlington. It was for the Southwest Professional Photographers of America. I got to attend solely due to the fact that I work at a photography studio. I attended some Photoshop seminars and Childrens Photography seminars as well as a photographers workflow class.

It was completely inspiring to say in the least. My photoshoop seminar was on Saturday. For 8 hours I was in a classroom learning retouching and enhancing techniques that had me in awe. I didn’t even care that it was Saturday and it was raining outside and took me almost an hour to get there. I loved my class. That day I realized how lucky I was to actually be doing this for a living. I remember back in the days when I was working for the government or corporate America and I hated going to training to better my Excel, Access skills. *gag* I absolutely hated it. This was an entirely different experience.

One of the photographers who was giving a class on how to better market and take photos of babies had this slideshow up on the first day. I was taking notes and she was talking and all of a sudden a slide with a quote left me dumbfounded as I listen to her tell a story. The quote said, “This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind…let it be something good.”

On my drive home I kept thinking about this. It was one of those life changing perspective moments for me. I came home and I sat down and took out my calculator. I did the math of how many days of life I have in me if I live to be 60. I didn’t go much higher, do I wish it to be higher, yes of course. . .but with my health right now (which I’m working on as I type this) you never know and even going all the way up to 60 is stretching it for me.

So my math gave me a total of 12,045 of life.

Let’s think about this for a minute. 12,045 days. . wow, that’s a lot of time. A lot of minutes, seconds, breaths. . .but what if we compared 12,045 days to dollars. That’s not a lot of money. I could probably spend that or invest it within seconds given the opportunity. Even if I bought small stuff here and there, those dollars would fly by. Probably not as fast as days…but you get where I’m going with this, right?

Time flies.

I mean I don’t want to work my ass off sun up to sun down 12,045 days of my life. But you know what? If for half of that time I have good days, life will be great. And what are good days? Well, I have a talent and a gift that can touch so many people. I intend to use it wisely from now on. That’s my goal.

I question my photography and design to death. . analyze myself until I’m bruised and tired. Just ask anyone of my closest friends. I look for praise. .and sometimes not even that, I seek a, “well you’re not doing it wrong. . but . .” I think we all are very personal with certain things like that in our lives. But I need to stop for my own sanity and to save time really. I need to KNOW i’m good, not think i am. .and I need to do this on my own for my own sake! There is so much I want to achieve as a photographer and graphic artist. Questioning my every move is just going to hold me back. I have a lot to learn and it’ll probably never stop. That’s part of this industry. I sat down and wrote 3 very huge goals I want to achieve with my talent, creativity and work. I have the means to do this; I just don’t have the experience. But I’m going to get there.

You know, those 5 minutes when she put that quote up on the projector was worth every penny that was invested in me taking all those classes. It was my angels singing and harps playing. . AHHHHHHHH. . moment.

So that’s what’s been going on in my life. I’m so inspired guys. . I feel like Michelangelo and the world is my Sistine Chapel!

I’m so going to rock this!

Here’s a picture I photoshopped of my sis: