An important message from Klondike
i have been here a long time and feel a connection to so many of you here that I thought i would share a few things about my life since I never talk about it.
Over the past few years I have had some serious ups and downs with my health and job and once again a crossroads is looming which I will need to deal with. Here goes...
Back in the old days, I was never much given to talking as a kid. I had to be prodded and poked, and usually prefered to just stare at the ground or at my food or whatever rather than say anything. Back then, they called it shyness, but now they have different terms. Selective muteness is one. Autism is another. Yes, I am autistic and today can hardly speak. If you were to run into me at an event holding a camera, we would not be able to have a conversation. That is a fact and I think only Fango knows anything about this. This is good news for you all, because the lack of social interaction frees me up to surf the web, post pics, etc. But everywhere else in my life, I struggle a great deal. I am smart enough to hold a job, but not being able to talk can be frusturating for my coworkers. I can stammer through life when I have to, order food, gas, pizza, etc. But I am virtually unemployable if my current job were to go away. Disability is the only option. So.......but circumstances are such that I may retire soon, and when that happens i will be sucked out into the void with no support, no job (I am mid 50's) and little hope. The rest goes like this...
When I was a kid, i played the piano and drew pictures. I dreamed of being an artist or a composer. I played the French Horn well enough to be told i could play in a major symphony. But later i went to college, got a masters degree, and tried to forget about these dreams to satisfy my parents. But of course I never did. Today, I have really come to enjoy photography, and if you visit my photostream at Flickr (user DavinS06) you will note that since taking up the camera to photograph nudes at events, I have tried my hand at more serious work too. So maybe I'm just a late bloomer, and at 56, have finally found my calling in life. i don't know. Being a composer would be cool too, but hey - lets get real
Anyway, the reason i am writing is for your support and encouragement to continue taking photographs, both nudes and other. Tell me you like my pics, or even if you don't, say something nice about them anyway
Cheer me up, in otherwords, and maybe I'll be around for another ten years or so to open my own Public Nudity Hall of Fame, auction my incomprehensibly vast collection of pics, and travel the world seeking out the best beaches, events and nudes for you all to feast your eyes on. It can happen, or i can go up in smoke. Autism is often accompanied by obsessive compulsive traits, anger, schizophrenia and other disorders. I have my share. Obsessive I am, for example, but I hope you have appreciated how i have put that obsessiveness to good use here. So thats all i got to say, and if any of you are hiding similar stories of autistic tendencies, geekiness, dreams gone awry, social awkwardness, loneliness, etc. feel free to respond. Otherwise, I'm taking my usual late winter hiatus from OCC while gearing up for the busy spring. So, all I want you all to do is thank this post and a thanks from each of you i will interpret as your way of saying something like "YOU ARE A BORN PHOTOGRAPHER, KLONDIKE - HOW SILLY YOU SHOULD EVER HAVE CONSIDERED ANYTHING ELSE!!"
we'll see how it goes....here is the link to my Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davins06/
cheers to all and someday I'll get around to downloading all of these great new pics that have been posted over the past month or so..
Kondike