A Premature End...

"Your Mother has stopped accepting food and water.  Hospice has been called.  You'd better get back here."

That shocking news came when we were 4 weeks into a 5-week trip.  And it had been quite a whirlwind before I left early to fly home.  Let me tell you what it was like.  This will necessarily be a short blog post.

The trip began with a stop in Pennsylvania for my niece's college graduation.  (Click on any image to view larger) (and sharper).

Nothing like an establishing shot.  But I wasn't in the front row - I was about 37 rows back.  The RX-10 IV (with its 600mm lens) is now my "Graduation Cam".

Actor Pierce Bronson gave the commencement speech.  We were stirred, but not shaken.

Just a sports complex.  But the light was great!

Then to Amish country to spend a few days...

(Yes, I got permission before shooting these pictures...)

Then to New York City to celebrate my wife's 65th birthday.

Red boat strategically placed according to the Rule of Thirds.  That made a huge difference in the image's impact.

Let's see a smartphone do THIS! :-)  (The RX-10 IV is now also my "Statue of Liberty Cam".)

Blue Hour

Bluer Hour

In the world of stock photography, your image has to be different from everyone else's or else it doesn't sell. So I took a picture probably nobody else has taken. 

Group selfies with large-sensor cameras can suffer from an out-of-focus background when you really don't want it. :-(

Then we drove a truckful of furniture from Boston to Nova Scotia where we're in the process of renovating a 150-year-old house.  

Max Headroom 10' 6".  Truck height: 11' 0".  On this trip I learned never to use Google Maps when driving a large truck, for it has no idea you're driving a large truck.  It will happily steer you down every narrow side street just to shave 10 seconds off your trip, and knows not that your vehicle is too tall to fit under that bridge.   Later I learned about CoPilot GPS, a GPS app for truckers that costs $30/year.  Worth it.

Truck damage from the inside.  

Then back to Boston in time to cover the Pride parade.

My Mom on her 80th birthday.

Once I got the notice from my brothers I immediately flew home hoping to see her one last time.  She died about three hours before I got there.

We can't say her death was unexpected; after all she had not been well for over a decade.  But still, your life gets put on hold and there's been little time to grieve.  My brothers and I have been scrambling to work on funeral arrangements, contacting friends and family, and liquidating the house to help pay for the Alzheimer's care for my Dad.  It has been an emotionally intense time.

And of course NONE of the projects I had hoped to complete by now are even close to being done, including:

• Updating the Sony A6400 book to include improvements with Firmware v2.
• Converting the A6400 book to Kindle and other e-reader formats
• Pushing the Spanish version of the A7 III book to production.
• 3 more Youtube videos
• Signup pages for upcoming seminars (including a recently-added one in Southern California on August 10-11, 2019.  See below for details)

I did manage to finish the Firmware v3 updates for the Sony A7 III and A7R III cameras while I was traveling.  You should have received these already if I knew about your purchase.  If not, send me your purchase receipt and I'll take care of you just as soon as I can.

Next Seminars

Here's what on the calendar:

• Southern California - August 10-11, 2019 (New!)
• Copenhagen - September 14-15, 2019
• South Carolina - April 2020
• St. Louis, Missouri - May 30-31, 2020
• [Your city could be here - have your photo club get in touch with me.  I'll speak to your club for FREE!]

If any of these interest you, send me an email at Gary at Friedman Archives dot com and I'll provide more info.

I leave you now with a few choice pics of my Mom, Ruthanne Friedman:

A picture of my parents taken through a window.

I even licensed a shot of her for a website!

Surrounded by grandkids and great grandkids.  (2 more came into the picture since this was taken.)

"They were on sale!"

In the Great Room of the house I grew up in, which now sits empty, waiting to be sold.

My Dad may not remember what happened two hours ago, but he still plays a mean game of chess.  And despite the memory loss, he still mourns her passing every day.

Until next time...

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman