#165 – February 21, 2022 (52/365)

The BLOG:

In February, I am selecting the oldest black and white photo from my “Candidates” folder and if I still love it, posting that. If the love has gone, it gets deleted.

This image is from a series of photographs taken during a play date for my daughter and one of her school friends. The 105mm portrait lens came out specifically to challenge me as I was not planning on taking any portraits with it. I was looking for mundane things and trying to take a non-mundane photograph of them.

What can I say? Give me a shallow depth-of-field and some interesting texture and I’m happy.

PS: Did you love the photo? Each photograph in the 2022 365 Black & White Challenge is made available as a single limited edition print. If you are interested, click here to purchase this print for only $36.50. I thank you for your support of my photography and this website.

The BLOG:

Today is the day my wife and I are apparently supposed to start itching as we’ve been married seven years today. I feel obliged to talk about our marriage and how awesome my wife is.

We are married and my wife is awesome.

Truth be told, it’s a work in progress. Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way looking for the nearest exit in any way, but it is not one of those TV marriages where everything is perfect. You’ve got two stubborn personalities, both ultra-competitive, and both running their own projects whilst working multiple jobs. And in and around all of that is the attention-starved five-year-old.

It’s never dull.

I miss the time we used to have together in the past. I missed the go out at the drop of a hat days. I miss having money. I miss rolling over at night and looking into the eyes of my wife rather than seeing my daughter, who most likely is sleeping parallel to us, with her feet pressed firmly into my stomach.

But I’d like to focus on understanding. How for a marriage to work, you have to truly understand each other. For my wife and I, we both have an activity that takes us away from the chaos of home life and work and lets us have a few hours of utter “me” time. For my wife, it’s roller derby. For me, it’s the band.

Why is this relevant? 

Because, rain, hail, shine or acts of God or terrorism, I will be at band practise on a Monday night. In six years I’ve missed five rehearsals. Four of those were after the birth of my daughter (I’d agreed to this well in advance) and the fifth time was because my wife was very ill and called me home. Something I know she would never do unless she absolutely had to.

I’ve left Adelaide, in South Australia, in time on a Monday morning to be sure to make it to Melbourne in time for band rehearsal.

My “me” time is very important to me and my mental health.

Having said all that, you may have noticed that today, our anniversary, is on a Monday night. Yes, I am going to band. And I love my wife even more for that.

It’s important to note that there was a roller derby event on our anniversary, it would be a no brainer that my wife would be attending. And that would be both expected and perfectly fine.

I could shake off any concern by saying we’ll celebrate on another night, but truth be told, we won’t. Our schedules won’t allow for it and any celebration would have to include the five-year old which defeats the purpose of having a nice night away or something.

As always, join the Facebook Group if you haven’t yet, comment below, have a great day and I look forward to typing at you in the next post.

Richard

Facebook Group
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# Photo Information 
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Nikon AF-S Nikkor 105mm 1:1.4E ED @ 105mm
Settings: 1/8000 | f/1.4 | ISO 100
When: Sunday February 13, 2022 @ 14:49 (10 minutes after previous photograph)
Where: Carrum Downs, Victoria, Australia

# Useless Website Statistics
Post number: 165
Published: Monday February 21, 2022 @ 0701 AEDST
Composed: Saturday February 19, 2022
Scheduled Posts Ready To Publish: 2 (-1)
B&W 365 Challenge: 52/365 (14% complete)
Candidates Folder: 13 (-1)

# Useless Life Statistics That Only I Like Looking Back On
Podcast Queue: 153 episodes (-1) | 133 hours, 0 mins | Current episode: 05OCT21 (139 days behind)
YouTube Subscription Video Queue: 32 (+11)

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