Stupid busy these days, I am.

It’s funny, though, how there always seem to be gaps in my shooting schedule (what
I call “wiggle room”) for other stuff.

This past Thursday The Shepherds of Good Hope hosted their 25th Anniversary party
at St. Brigids Centre for the Arts and Humanities…..a de-sanctified Catholic church
on the corner of Murray and Cumberland. That’s right across the corner from where
I shot USER, my series of portraits of crack addicts.

The Shepherds asked Guy (who owns the gallery where I exhibited USER) and me if
we would hang some of the USER shots in St. Brigids for their party. We said YES,
of course.

It was a swell party and I got to catch up with a number of the people I shot for USER who
were at the party.

Here are some pix of Candace and me at the party. Candace tells me that, after the birth
of her grandson she decided to kick heroin. “But”, she told me, “I still smoke crack and suck
cocks. I love them too much to give up”.

I mean no disrespect to Candace when I quote her here saying that. You’d have to know
her to know that it’s no big deal to her. She’d tell that to anyone. It’s her life and I’m not
going to judge her for her fact. So don’t write to complain or get yer knickers in a knot or
anything like that.

Right after I left St. Brigids I went to another party. This one at Capital Publishers to celebrate
the publication of their largest issue of the year: Ottawa Magazine Interiors Edition.

When I got there all the photogs were in the board room pouring over the issue, checking to make
sure their shots were reproduced to their standards, comparing and generally being anti-social. I joined
them. What are you going to do? It’s how photographers are wired, I think. Eventually we all made it
over to the sushi table and had a civilized chat.

Anyway, after a while I decided to shoot shots of folks there shaking their heads…….

I had a great time, catching up with the other photogs there. Since the advent of digital
we hardly bump into each other anymore. Used to be we’d all be at the lab all the time
dropping off and picking up film. Now we just hunker in front of our computers.

I made up a photographer joke:

Q: How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: One hundred. One to screw in the bulb and ninety-nine so say they could have screwed it in better.