Who are you thankful for?

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, many of us are starting to reflect on the things that we are most thankful for in this life. Naturally, we tend to gravitate towards things like family, friends, jobs, homes, and other material possessions (especially the camera gear!). Today, I want to focus on something more specific–as a photographer, who are you thankful for? Who is it in your life that encourages and inspires you as a photographer?

This idea wasn’t cooked up in my own brain, but inspired by a Facebook post by the Adorama Used Department, which I’m a fan of. BTW, if you comment, you’ll be eligible to win some Adorama gift certificates. 🙂 I’ve already made my comment there, not just in hopes of winning one of those gift certificates, but because there is a photographer that I’m especially thankful for. He’s not famous, he’s not even a professional, but he encourages and inspires me. While he is my favorite shooting buddy, the roots of this relationship go deeper than that, for he contributed his DNA to me. He is my dad. 🙂

I had been dabbling in photography off and on throughout my adult life when I finally bought my first DSLR in October 2007. Up until then, Dad had never shown any interest in photography to speak of–Mom took almost all of the pics of me and my sister when we were growing up. As I started sharing what I was learning about both my new gear and techniques, Dad started to get really interested. Finally, in May 2008, he took the plunge and picked up his first DSLR and started learning from scratch, with lots of help from me and another photographer friend of his. In the past year and a half, we’ve both attended a couple of nature photography workshops and have gone on our own photo outings whenever we’ve had a chance to get together, which isn’t often enough. Not only have we had a great time both shooting and learning, our personal relationship has grown as well. To me, that benefit alone makes it worth all of the thousands of dollars that we’ve spent between the two of us on camera gear and workshops. When I compare how much the relationship I have with Dad is worth in comparison to the money that I’ve spent on this hobby, I most definitely got a bargain. Lord willing, I’m looking forward to many more years of photo adventures with him. 😀

I also am thankful for Mom, who has been so supportive of us and our photography. She has gone on most of our photo outings with us and has let Dad spend tons of money on gear (not all spouses would be as supportive as she has been), not only for himself, but some for me, as well (they bought me the Canon 40D body that I’m currently using). Even with her little Kodak superzoom p&s, she is a good photographer in her own right. 🙂

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On a totally different note, I’ve been on vacation this week, so I’ve had time to make some changes to the blog page. I’ve done a little deleting, but I’ve added a good many new links. While I’ve added a section with links to Canon resources, I’ve opted to keep the Pentax links for those who find this blog via the link to it in the signature that appears on all of my posts to Pentax Forums. I’ve also added a button that will allow you to receive my postings via email, if you’d rather not keep up with them via the RSS feed.

Have a most blessed Thanksgiving! 🙂