At 35

  Today I turn 35 and I feel like I am just hitting my stride. I have risen to a new level on so many facets of my life. I have grown to be a father and man with a family. I have found clarity in my life both personally and professionally. I am in better health. And I am learning Grace.

  I can honestly say that I have learned all of this from someone who can only communicate in babble and loving smiles. My son.

  Benjamin is the one I credit for opening my eyes to life. That I need to look for focus. That I should be cognizant of my actions. He has shown me that life has a priority and enjoying it is at the top.

  Because of him I am taking better care of my health. I am 30 pounds lighter today than I was three years ago. I wake up before the sun rises and run 16 miles a week. I have learned to enjoy egg whites and oatmeal for breakfast. And have slowly learned patience.

  I look at the world differently at 35 than I did at 25 and I see where I want to be when I am 45. I understand that what you do in your personal life effects how you are in your professional life. I understand that how you treat your professional life effects your personal life.

  In the last few months, I have made changes to my business the will lead it in a new direction. A direction that excites me and shows me that I am no longer that gung-ho photojournalist fresh out of college. I see new things with my creative gift and wonder how it will shape me.

  At 35 I am in search of Grace. Sunday's have become personally enlightening days of the week for me. Sitting in the crying room during service, I have found nuggets of wisdom and inspiration that speak to me. Finding Grace is a life-long endeavor and one that comes a little more easily with age.

  At 35 I feel alive and blessed. Even if I did find gray whiskers in my beard this week.

A Stormy Relationship with Fay

  Last week we endured the rains from Tropical Storm Fay. She was like an uninvited house guest who didn't know when to leave. When Fay first showed up we really didn't know it. She seemed to affect more of the Melbourne area and Brevard County which is Southeast of us. 

  One of my clients called me last Wednesday and asked if I could go cover the storm which was causing major flooding for the folks in Brevard. I packed Benjamin and his goodies to head to his Nono's in Kissimmee. Sergio was happy to spend time with his grandson and I headed out US 192 to Melbourne. 

  When I got there I found many of the side streets under two feet of water and began searching for some type of picture that would illustrate this. I turned down one flooded street and raised my Rover's air suspension in the hopes I wouldn't hydra lock my engine.

  I found a guy who had mistakingly pulled in to what he thought was a parking lot to find out it was a retention pond. The pictures I made were of his Mercedes submerged and by all expectations totaled.

  Then on Friday I got a call from the same client as I was feeding Benjamin breakfast asking if I could shoot more images of Fay in Central Florida. I called Cathy's mom and asked if she could come to our house to stay with Benjamin as it would be wasteful for me to drive down south just to drive to the northern counties of Seminole and Volusia to cover the story.

  Before I could head to where Fay was currently impacting residents I had to make a stop. I needed chest waders. Yes after covering six hurricanes I finally decided I needed to invest in these goofy rubber pants.

  With geek attire in hand I headed to Debary to document homeowners struggling to keep Fay's water out from their houses. I headed toward Soft Shadow Lane.

  I waded in chest-deep water shooting pictures of residents coping with excessive rains and children who had been cooped up in the homes for days. I made my pictures and mapquested a Panera restaurant in search of a hot lunch and free WiFi to transmit my pictures.

  After lunch I drove to a nearby neighborhood in Sanford to get some more pictures of flooding. I learned that the Lincoln Heights neighborhood was in some serious problems. Sewers were backing up and flood waters were not receding.

  When I arrived I found some of the local TV stations had already setup camp at the end of Truman Blvd. I hopped in my waders and proceeded down Truman in search of some pictures. Boy did I find them and more.

  Some teens were playing in the filth water. One was on a bike. One was diving in the water. A couple were throwing a ball.

  I walked a little further and found Willie practicing his casting from the tailgate of his Chevy pickup truck. I asked Willie if he had caught anything. He replied, "No but I'll show what I did find in the water."

  He picked up a small bucket and showed me the leaches he had collected earlier. Ugh! I hate leaches. They always remind me of the scene in the move "Stand by Me".

  I shot a few more images and headed home to transmit. Overall Fay was more damaging then some of the hurricanes I've covered. She dropped rain not measured in inches but by feet. Some areas received six months worth of rains in three days. We are now dealing with the rising rivers and face the possibility of Hurricane Gustav striking a second blow to us. 

  In all it was a long, rainy week. I'm just glad I'm done shooting it...for now.

Technical Difficulties...Resolved?

Yes I’m still blogging however it has been frustrating the last week. You see I use the iWeb software from Apple and it was crashing every time I’d go to publish a new entry.
Then today I did some monkeying around with it and was able to publish last week’s post about shooting a portrait of Ray’s 3B Evan Longoria.
It was so frustrating the last week that I was looking for alternatives to posting on the .Mac site as I do now with this blog. I went so far as to reserve the chrislivingston address on the blogging site Blogger (http://chrislivingston.blogspot.com/) as a backup plan.
I can’t guarantee that every thing will be hunky-dory in the future but I might start simulcasting this blog over at the other site just in case.
I’m just glad I was able to get these post out now and fill you in on what I’ve been doing lately. Please keep reading as I try to make it fun and different. It’s some times diapers, sometimes photo, sometimes geeky but hopefully always interesting.