"Metal Mercury" ...

Well, that's what it looks like to me, anyways!

But yeah, it is just rain drops, on my hood of my old, Nissan 350Z, after a rain storm some years ago! I just liked the "LOOK" of it, and just "FIRED AWAY"!

You know, AFTER taking a few "Test Shots" to get the exposure the way I wanted it! You know me ... MINUS, MINUS, MNUS!

I wanted that black to be, ahh, really BLACK!

Just because I could.

That is how I like to shoot ...

Have for YEARS! Like, a LOT of years! What? Like, since 1984, or 1985, you know, once I finished that course through the mail, with THE NEW YORK INSTITUTE of PHOTOGRAPHY.

Yeah, I finished the course , like, about a "week" before getting hired by The Department of the Army, ahh, as a photographer, over there in Germany.

Really.

I read their books, took my photos, mailed them in, then always got a CASSETTE (really) through the mail with, ahh, "Hello Dave"!

It was a TRIP!

I can still hear the man's voice in my head!

And yeah, it was, and still is, a REAL photography school, located right downtown New York City! In fact, once I got back to the States after working over in Germany, yeah, my first visit while in New York looking for a STOCK AGENCY was, you guessed it!

The NEW YORK INSTITUTE of PHOTOGRAPHY.

Kind of a "Pre-Test", before the real thing! They gave me tips on how meeting Photo Editors was all about! I just remember, ahh, just "shut -up" and let your images do the talking for you!

Which, if you know me, was tough, but I tried my best!

True, I didn't sign with anyone in New York City, but they got the ball rolling ... I ended up signing with STOCK BOSTON, less than a week later ... Yeah, smaller, yet willing to take a "risk" on some un-known photographer with connections with the military ... Remember, at the time, I was happily married to a women in the Army, that I met in college!

They send me off to Goose Bay, Canada, where several International Air Forces trained in low-level bombing raids ... No, really.

USA, CANADA, and the U.K., that I can remember, anyways ... The story ran in some publication I had never heard of before, but hey, it got my "foot in the door"!

Crazy, now as I "look back on it", all these years later!

Like I like to say (and write), ahh, "You Never Know"!

And that led to motorcycle trips around the world, and then River Cruises over in Europe, ahh, and beyond ... Like Russia, and China!

Yeah, and, I might add, all THAT led to me getting my Master's Degree in Photography in Chicago, ahh, at an ART SCHOOL of all things! Yeah, that took some adjustment on my part, to be sure!

My history with "ART" came from being asked to leave my high school art classes more times that not! But after being asked to "think about another field of photography" while in Chicago, yeah, I went back to my "hometown" for the summer, and came back with my, ahh, "FINAL PROJECT", that, yeah, satisfied the "Powers that Be", and yeah, I graduated!

Art School.

Yeah, what a trip!

And what did I end up teaching at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, right up the street, for over twenty-four years? Yeah ...

ART 261 and ART 262.

Go figure.

I just called it, you know, PHOTOGRAPHY, but yeah, they let me "hang around" until I retired, so I guess it all worked out in the long run!

Just find "YOUR ART", and run with it! And yes, you can call it anything YOU want, no worries!

It is all about PASSION.

Even if it is just, you know, rain drops on the hood of your car, sitting out in the drive way, after a rain strom, you know, just outside your front door!

Worked for me ... For over the past what? FIFTY-something years!

Just do it.

You, like me, can just giggle later!

See ya out there!