Photography

My interest in photography is rather old. As a kid, I used to use a little 110, but I never took any photographs of anything interesting.

Before I got married the first time, some 16 years ago, I had bought a 35 millimeter, and my now ex-wife and I took it to Browning, Montana because a friend of mine was getting married. By then, I had already been a poet for years. Felicia, I believe, was 2 at the time, so musta been 10 years ago. I was working on a book called "Cigar Store Indian" [never published, all the short stories and poems are now lost in time] and I wanted a cover for it.

In Browning, Montana, one has an absolutely fabulous view of the Rocky Mountains. In Browning there are also lotsa dead vehicles all over the prarie. I found this beautiful rusted out old pick up with all of its tires gone. I handed my camera to Lisa, my ex, I grabbed Felicia, a rather large cigar, and we went and sat on the roof of that old rusty dead truck. Felicia was under my left arm, cigar in my right hand, and Lisa took several pictures of us from behind as we looked to the East at the glorious Rocky Mountains.

Shortly thereafter, my sister-in-law at the time broke my camera, and shortly after that, Lisa lost all of that film. Because I'm writing about it, it must be obvious that it still hurts.

Recently, Lisa found a lot of undeveloped rolls of 35mm film. I got all of them developed and...nothing. Of course, this brings up the heart ache of all that as well. It still hurts when I think about it. That would have been such a sweet photograph.

I didn't do photography for a long time. I kept up the poetry. I still write, but not so much poetry now. Then...

Shusli and I got together. She has a nice digital camera and she has taken some awesome pictures with that as you can see some of them on her blog. So...

Last year that inspired me to buy a digital camera of my own, and I started taking photographs.

What I Love about taking photographs with a digital is the INSTANT GRATIFICATION. You see, the wait to get those photos of Felicia and I and the Rocky Mountains is still painful, knowing that that film must be out there somewhere, maybe somewhere in a box in Felicia's mom's house. And, in some way, it is that ache for that one photo that inspires me to take photographs today.

When I received my per capita check from my tribe in August, I bought myself an Olympus SP-550UZ.

I Love this camera!

And now, that little ache in the back of my heart inspires me to take photographs, sometimes somewhat obsessively. It is the instant gratification that would have saved those pictures I had taken of Felicia and I all those years ago.

And just like my poetry, I don't expect that any of this will create any kind of career for me, it is just an outlet for my creativity. So, if you are interested, please visit my photography blog and see some of the photo essays I have created there. I was pretty inspired by the most recent, "Poster," which I took the photos while Shusli was on a call last night.

Pudgy Indian Photos