Remembering Gabe...

This morning at about 8:30am Eastern time my grandfather took a trip from this world to the great fishing cabin in the sky.  I got the news while in the car on the way to see him, and my sister for her birthday of all things.  It’s a terrible family tragedy, but at the same time he is now no longer in extreme pain from a very aggressive/severe abdominal cancer (his 3rd or 4th run-in with the illness, we kinda lost count).

My Uncle and Grandmother were with him when he passed, and that’s all I really know right now.  Other than of course it’s the little things that’ll be missed.  Examples being his methods of teaching my sister and I to share growing up by tearing some denomination of currency in half ($20 or $50 depending on what kind of mood he was in to watch us), and saying figure this out.  More often than not I just gave my half of the bill to my sister because if she was willing to deal with the bank on the ripped up bill, she deserved my half.  Never really knew what he thought of that solution, but it meant I didn't actually have to go to a bank which I was ok with.  (I hope my accountant doesn't read this as he'll probably mention that turning down money is yet another reason for him to call my profession a Hobby.)  Another classic moment of his were his one liner jokes which included things like, “A  bear shits in the woods...” Followed only by laughter.

I’d like to say he was a master of technology as I not only have received emails from him, but while I was in college he was on the AOL Instant messenger train and would talk via the computer regularly.  He was a firm believer that time wasn't to waste though and if he messaged me and I didn't respond within approximately 15 seconds he would assume I wasn't there and sign off.  If there was one thing I could say about his computer usage though, it's that he was always Virus free by the method of installing every anti virus software he could find to the point that it took approximately 45 minutes for his Vista Laptop to boot.  Despite that fact, he made sure that it was always off when he was done so that no viruses could get on there while he wasn’t closely watching it’s every move.

Another thing is that he was a big fan of his Minolta Film SLR that he used to this day.  He however was not my inspiration into photography, my grandpa Ted was.  Gabe however did enjoy the craft, and owned several cameras along the way including dozens $20 OpTikatechpixelmegafawangerawesome brand digital cameras and used them constantly to document life around him.  Above all though he wanted a cat, but my grandmother wouldn’t have it.  Every time he saw me he told me he was jealous that I had one, and it pains me that I was never able to introduce him to Cheeto in any form but via email.

Despite the things that I’ve said here seeming somewhat tongue in cheek, he was smarter than all of us.  His Vista PC cost him $200 and if they had more than one on sale that day he’d have bought two; just in case.  Sure beats the hell out of the Kidney Buttload of cash I paid for my Mac Pro, or Macbook Pro for that matter.  It was all he needed to email and pay his bills.  His $20 cameras couldn’t print anything poster sized, but they could print pictures of his grandkids for the refrigerator just fine.  Unlike 90% of the consumer market he knew what he needed, and wasn’t going to get something he didn’t.  Just like the bear in the woods, he knew that sometimes the little things in life were meant to be laughed at.  Despite how random, or how asinine things may appear it’s funny how it’s all a matter of perspective.  Last weekend I saw him in the hospital and when we walked in my grandmother asked him if he knew who I was to which is response was simply; “What are you, Stupid?  Marc, sit down…”  Feisty until the end.  He will be missed.  More Soon.

Gone Fishin.....

Take it! Take it! Take it! Put it in your mouth! Come on, you know you want it! go go go! take it! Take it! TAKE IT! OOOOOH YEA!

I'm talking about fishing here, what are you thinking about? That's right Fishing can be confused with other sports it seems when you are looking at just the words that you use in fishing. So there was a lot of the line above last week while I was with my grandfather on his 57th trip to Obabikonk Bay Canada to go fishing. Can you hear an 80 year old man say that line up there? I can because I heard it quite a bit from him, my uncle, and the guide we had up there. It was a glorious trip that could not have happened any other way. I got a little relaxed and quite a bit of sunburn being unable to get phone calls or emails for an entire week. I had time to think about a few things that had been bugging me which are all good and fine now; and after a 20 hour ride in the car arriving at Indianapolis at 5am this morning I'm ready to go to work at 7am tomorrow. (Yes I know It's Sunday, thus is my world). Either way it was a glorious trip, and I'm ever so thankful that I was able to go as I definitely did a little bit of relaxing.

(Sony Cybershot DSC-W90 set to the little green camera that lets me concentrate on fishing......or napping in this case)

Yea I am wearing pants and boots in that picture. I do own other clothes than that, but we all packed winter garb because any other time any of us have been to Obabikan we've frozen solid. I lost at least 13 fingers the last time I went. (ok maybe not, but it was freakin frigid ok?) This year it was 80 degrees on the Island. Everybody was astounded, we all had all sorts of winter garb packed that I never even touched except to move out of the way of the t-shirts. When I wasn't losing lures in the bay, or in the boat the weather was nice enough for me to easily feed my addiction despite the fact that I was on vacation......

(Nikon D700, 200ISO, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-4.5@18mm, 1/80th@F14)

I took my D700 with me. I did good though, I only took my 28-70, 18-35 and 60mm macro. NO flashes, no telephoto, no SU-800 or pocket wizards. No CTO gels, or Gradiated Density filters (which subsequently would have been nice to have for the photo above...) Subsequently though I kicked myself once I got there because of course there were photos that I wanted to take that I didn't have the right equipment for. There was an eagle sitting in the tree the whole week above our cabin. Get a photo of a bird with an 18mm lens from 400 feet away and what do you have? 400 feet of tree with a tiny bird at the top. Fortunately I am of the mentality that the impossible only takes a little longer, and this was my solution:

(Nikon D700, 12,800ISO, NIkon 60mm F2.8 Nano Macro, 1/60th@F3 shot through the right lens of a set of Brookstone 30x viewing binoculars)

Yup, shot that through a set of 30x tinted viewing binoculars at dusk. I knew I took the Macro lens for a reason. It's awesomely grainy, and sort of soft but I'm just going to go out on a stretch here and call it artistic. Really I dig the shot, I can't complain at all after having to MacGyver a rig together just to take it in the first place. MacGyvered is a great way to describe my taking of photos last week considering that I really didn't take all that much gear with me. Of course like I said though I wanted all sorts of things that I didn't have besides my telephoto as well. Of those things included a Tripod, a remote release cable, and a D3x (I can dream right?) Either way, I managed to snake myself this shot:

(Nikon D700, 3200ISO, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-4.5@18mm,30seconds@F3.5. The camera was facing straight up at a slight angle on the roof of our cabin and the 10 second release timer was used to avoid camera shake)

No gear is not everything. The best camera is the camera that you have with you. Cameras are a tool, and it shouldn't matter what kind of camera you have because it is the person behind it. A hammer is a hammer, a wrench is a wrench and that's that. All I have to say though wanting to have a nice hammer isn't such a bad thing is it?


(Nikon D700, 1000ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@28mm, 1/60th@F2.8)

That's my grandfather. He turned 80 this year and as I said previously he has been making this trip for 57 years. He's like a kid in the boat; catching fish to feed the birds as opposed to for our lunch. This was the greatest fishing trip I have ever had, and I'd venture to guess it was the same for him. He caught the largest fish of his life this trip which was a 38 inch pike. That fish wasn't good enough though because he then replaced it with a 39 inch pike. That's right, he caught the TWO largest fish of his life back to back on this trip. I have never seen him as elated as that moment, and moments after when the guide told him to send him photos of the two fish so he could make bookends for his mantle; my grandfather said he would talk about that day for the rest of his life.

Some of these things make me want to add the line, "takes resonably ok vacation photos" to my dating resume. I was pleased considering the photos I took were all photos that could have been done much easier, or better with that one piece of equipment that I didn't take. It just goes to show you like I mentioned a little higher that the best camera is the one you have with you. The impossible, or at least what seems that way, only takes a little longer. The milky way shot a little higher was taken by laying my camera on the roof of the cabin while standing on a chair with that same rickety corner that every shopping cart I've ever used has had, the seemingly imposible 20 hour car ride with some 80 year old men on the trip of a lifetime, The supermodel on TV that want to meet or date someday, getting over someone you've loved and lost, the Million bucks you know that you'll earn someday, or even a photo of an Eagle 400 feet up in a tree taken with a close up lens. Anything is possible. This took 80 years. More soon.