Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

Supposedly this was said by Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright, sometime between 1854 and 1900 when he lived.


I’m going to narrow that down to 1864 to 1898 since he probably didn’t say anything too special until he was 10 and probably not during his criminal conviction for gross indecency, consensual homosexual acts and imprisonment leading to an early death at age 46 when he probably wasn’t feeling too chirpy.


I doubt if he actually said it.
Oscar Wilde was a poet and playwright, which means he made things up.
Like politicians, your high school science teacher and Hollywood actors.


Hollywood actors read scripts written to make them sound clever when it actually takes 25 ‘takes’ and ‘cuts’ to put together enough bits to sell them as clever between extended love scenes, which is what they are actually good at and practice when they should be memorizing their lines.


These accomplished thespians get up among their equally brilliant and accomplished peers to receive an award in front of the millions around the world and can’t remember a 30 second speech despite having practiced it in the shower, on the toilet and in their dreams a thousand times.    
Maybe if they carried a roll of toilet paper with them it would come back to them.


Out comes the wrinkled, handwritten note you are supposed to believe they hurriedly wrote at their seat.
”Gosh - I might win! Is my zipper up?” Is it ever up?
They stammer out “I need to pull out this little piece of paper to thank all the people that I screwed ….
Wrong piece of paper. That one is a much longer piece of paper provided by a urologist.


Robert Deniro.
Raging Bull was good.
The Deer Hunter was shit. A beard in the army - really? Not the US Army.
Now it’s farting grandfathers and mail-ins to pay his wife’s shopping bills.
Have some pride man.


Granted I didn’t watch any of Bob’s work between 1974 and last night.
I was raising a family and running a business.
So I missed some things.
I didn’t watch Bob. Bob didn’t watch me.
We work well together.


I have a beautiful wife and two wonderful children after 40 years.
You can’t write that script in Hollywood.
”And there is only one nominee in this category and the award goes to…”
Unlike you I know who to thank and this will be short.


Anyway this is about photography not movies, which I also know nothing about.
Let me get to the point.


Photos, which I don’t take, are personal and emotional links to significant events, people and times in our life.


The pictures of my children transport me immediately to the day and moment when they occured.   
I remember the food, weather, smell of their sweaty hair, falling asleep in their plates of ketchup and French fries…
My wife can’t remember their names. We have two children.


Pictures, photographs to you, turn me into a weepy, shadow of the man I was.
Like Robert DeNiro.
We ALL know ALL restaurants fail. Didn’t someone tell Bob?
”Great idea Bob! New York needs a restaurant and you have experience eating, losing money and pretending…”


It’s not just my photos but other people’s photos also.
I see a photo that has the essence of humanity and love in it and I stare it like Bob stares at his prenup agreement.


I am imperfect.
With or without a camera.


My wife can verify this as she has a relational database spanning 40 years that can be searched quickly via SQL and return results within nanosconds.

SELECT ALL WHERE EVENT = “bus, Turkey, bodily fluid”

This query will return an embarrassing moment on a Turkish bus between Nevsehir and Malatya.
Where did she learn relational database theory and DB2 DBA database utilities?


I cherish the shit pictures that I take.
I built this www site for you.
So I can share them with you and make you feel good about your shit photos.


If I did this for myself and had any skills I would have more than 15 pictures to show for 15 years of taking pictures.
It’s like playing golf and being told you’re not supposed to aim at the sand and water.
Really? I wondered why we never walked together.


It’s not about the shit pictures.


It’s about the life, emotion and love that shit pictures enable you remember perfectly composed in your memory.


Embrace life, relish the shit.


Be yourself before they throw you in prison like Oscar Wilde.