The Smell of Freedom

© Dan Brodie

I have often said, "The smell of a wet dog is like the smell of freedom."

For me, there is no greater peace attained than that of the time spent in the field with a sporting dog. Autumn is especially fine as it is the time for bird dogs to do what they do. Early mornings and the changing weather seem to keep the crowds down and the world can sometimes feel like your own. Working with an animal that is so eager to please is an absolute delight and when you are able to communicate and operate as a team with very little distraction, the outings are very rewarding. It's too bad that the spaces to do this are becoming ever so hard to find. Very often, instead of exploring wild places, we end up at a dog park and just pretend to be Rene, the young orphan and Big Red, the champion Irish Setter, preparing to take the canine world by storm. lol

Maybe I'm just an idealist romanticizing about days better left behind, but honestly, is there anything better than the smell of freedom?

Back It Up!

Back up your positions, back up your equipment, back up your plans, and back up your files. After I shot the U19 Men's World Lacrosse Championship in 2008, I learned a hard lesson about backing up digital files. I learned that you can drive a loaded dump truck over an external hard drive, but you can't drop one from 12 inches off the ground! All the original files from my days of shooting this prestigious international tournament were unrecoverable after a little mishap that occurred while transferring the files from the single hard drive that I was using for temporary storage.

Everyone deserves a second chance, right? Right. But just because you deserve it, doesn't mean you will get it, so back it up and back it up again. Trust me.

I Can See Clearly Now

When Holly Cole sang her cool jazzy rendition of Johnny Nash's, "I Can See Clearly Now",  at the Holiday Festival On Ice held at the Langley Events Centre, it gave me chills up my spine.

As much as the night was frustrating for me as a photographer trying to get some recognition, it was also just as inspiring. I thought of my beloved grandmother, affectionately known as Betty to most, who absolutely loved figure skating and jazz.

On one of my last visits with her before she

passed on from this material world, she laid on her hospice bed and proudly addressed me to the other family members in the room as Dan Brodie...the Photographer. I shrugged it off like I do with almost any type of compliment. Who I was or what I did, was the last thing I cared about at the moment I was about to lose one of, if not the most important and influential people in my life, but during that performance, I knew whole-heartedly that I was indeed a photographer and that I was being lifted by my grandmother's ever-lasting spirit.