It s been another long hard week. However, at the same time, I am blessed to have so many amazing people in my life that know how to lift me up.
To be honest, its been a bad few months and I am sure you guys have noticed that I have not been shooting as much. Sometimes, when I am going through stuff, the inspiration and motivation can lack for me.
I have been wanting to go out on a boat and shoot the Atchafalaya Basin for a very long time now. Last night, some great friends made it happen for me.
It was great being out there in the open water and fresh air. It made me feel free again and like I didn’t have a care in the world. My dad, who passed away in 1999, was an avid fisherman and loved fishing in the Basin. I felt like I was connecting with his spirit out there. He was also a photographer. Even though he was technically my “step dad”, I believe he passed his love and talents to me regardless. He was really more of a real father to me and not just my step dad. He married my mom when I was 3, so he raised me while my bio dad was caught up in his own world that didn’t include me.
I did get some amazing images that I am currently processing. Some are amazing and some not so much. When I was planning for it, I didn’t take into account that I wouldn’t be on stable ground so many are out of focus and I am not sure how many of those that I ll be able to save. It s all good. It just gives me another excuse to go back 🙂
My friend driving the boat offered to slow down for me a lot but the Asian Carp were jumping like crazy. One even landed in our boat. It hit my friends knee pretty hard, covered us in slime, flopped around the boat and left a bloody mess.I can’t remember the last time I screamed so much. My friends brother was in a boat next to us and he jumped in and took care of the fish and helped us clean up the best we could. It was disguisting and we smelled like stinky fish afterwards. The carp like to jump when the boat is moving slow. After that fiasco, I told my friends to keep going “fast, fast fast’ so we wouldn’t have a repeat. I do have pictures of the fish but I m not posting them because it was all so gross and it left the boat looking like a murder scene.
Anyways, moving on :)….
When I got home last night ( and after I immediately took a bath), I went to bed feeling so much lighter and slept better then I have in a very very long time.
This morning, I woke up feeling like myself for the first time in months. Also, I feel as if a “block” was lifted from me because I am now feeling motivated and creative again.
My soul feels like it has been freed and I just know that my dad is up there looking after me and giving me reassurance that everything will be ok.
I sure hope I make him proud with my images. I will be posting all of them on my FB page in the next few days. You can view them here: https://www.facebook.com/tmattphoto/
In the meantime, here is one of my favorites so far….
