[Leica] IMGS: Lake Titicaca NOW GETTING OLD! :-(

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

Mark Rabiner offered:

>>>>>The point comes seemingly early it seems in a productive photographers 
>>>>>life
where they could easily hang up the camera and devote the rest of their
decades to post production. Printing. Editing. Signing books. Emailing.

I'm not going to let it happen to me, for one, the digital thing just makes
for going out and shooting too great and you don't need money to do it. I'm
sure Tina is not racketing back one click.<<<<<<<<

Mark,
I hate this aging crap with such a great vengeance! I will not and am not 
going to sit back and become a fat assed gut sagging old man waiting to die! 
My life has been filled with wonderful places and the greatest of 
assignments and I fully expect to go right on until I go down with a camera, 
Leica or whatever in hand!

With any kind of luck this year I will be working on a new book about 
medical students in training..... in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Montreal, Oxford 
UK., Hannover in Germany with a possibility of a week or two in Spain. And 
quite possibly a week or two at John's Hopkins in the USA.

So as I run towards my 81st birthday this May, I have no intention of... "Oh 
you're old, you can't do that. Or why wouldn't you just sit back and enjoy 
what your incredible life has been and the honors bestowed on you this past 
couple of years?  WHY??????????  Easy!

Hell if I quit I'll die, as simple as that. Last year, 08 I had a  touch of 
the miseries of sitting back and not doing very much ............. it was 
hell! "Why don't you go out and take pictures you'll feel better!" After all 
these years of pressure assignments, just walking about is about as tough as 
it could possibly be. Then I took to flowers, yep it was interesting but it 
isn't the same as doing it for real!

I've had the very good fortune to be working with men in their 90's this 
past two years and they are as gung ho as teen agers. One at the age of 95 
kept telling me... "well young fella don't even consider stopping what you 
enjoy with such great enthusiasm for so many years! If you do, you will be 
dead in less than a year!" And that folks sure as hell isn't going to 
happen. Besides I now have a brand new eye to see with, so I better make use 
of it! :-)

For those of you who have the DVD BRAVO TV  documentary about me and or have 
seen the film on TV my closing remark is, "When I go I will have a camera in 
my hand, why not?" :-) A fitting way to go!

Yep sure as heck have aches and pains some days from various crash and burns 
of the past years. But at 80 it's bite the bullet, it's a new day the 
beginning of a New Year! So get on with it, pull up yer socks and get 
cracking. And with any kind of luck we'll make this a very productive year 
just like many of the others in the past! Maybe a little slower! :-)

A nice thing to have on the calendar already is 4 speaking engagements with 
photo schools and colleges and a couple of camera clubs so that should help 
keep me out of mischief! ;-) But that's no fun! :-)

I maybe off screen for some periods of time but will drop in when I can or 
after a meet and greet with LUGGERS along the way.

Have a great year everyone. And don't forget to save the misery of me 
yelling at you next December 2010. Get your pictures to Jim early!!! :-) 
Thanks to everyone who made the book! Good on you! Those who missed it? 
Right now open a 2010 folder on the desktop and put two photos in it! There 
now that was so easy, right? ;-)

cheers,
ted