Stuck in San Antonio

The ice storm here in Texas has caused all flights out of San Antonio to be canceled. So here I sit waiting for the next flight to Atlanta. I am told it might be tomorrow afternoon or Friday afternoon. All flights tomorrow are full. If they take off. I am sure that they will because the ice has started to melt and fall from the hotel windows onto the side walk and river walk. I got hit by a very large piece of ice a little while ago and it almost knocked me into the river. I am staying in the rest of the night. These are just a few photos I took with my little Nikon s6.

My Kids

Several people have e mailed and asked " Why don't you post any photos of your daughter ?"
It is because I am VERY protective of my daughter. My son can handle himself very well. So, he gets photos posted. The incident in St Louis , MO where the 14 year old boy scout was kidnapped by the pervert has really upset me. My Son is 14. My daughter is 16. She is a very petite young lady and is protected by her daddy (ME) her brother, and her new Black Belt Degree in the Martial Arts. She also has just finally out shot her brother and myself by putting 16 out of 20 .233 rounds in the first 3 rings of a 150 Ft target at the shooting range. If you shoot, you know what I am talking about.
Anyway, my description of my daughter in no way covers the whole picture. Life in my house with these two kids is like a comedy Broadway play. Imagine if you will, Ronald Reagan and Keith Richard as teens living in the same house. I have a very large demographic that reads this blog so for those of you who do not know who Keith Richard is, He is the lead guitar player and chief song writer for the Rolling Stones. When Keith dies, Rock and Roll will die with him. He is flamboyant, as is my daughter. My son is much more conservative. When we go out, my son may have on a jacket and tie, and my daughter will have on a feather boa and a lime green shirt with some kind of punk saying on it. Somebody help me. Somebody cool. The photo is from when we went to the tree farm to get a Christmas tree.

Erin And I

Photo of Erin and I in the freezing rain.

San Antonio, TX

Here I am in San Antonio. FREEZING my butt off. Rain and ice have been the norm since I arrived. I am here for the Imaging USA convention. The last 2 days have been full of great speakers and a lot of schmoozing with vendors who might want to sponsor part of my speaking tour. San Antonio has a great downtown area with the Riverwalk. You can get on the riverwalk and go just about anywhere downtown that you want to go. It has great shops and restaurants. (See the photo of my piece of cake) Lord knows I did not NEED any cake but when I am out of town the one thing I spurge on is great restaurants. I will post some photos later.
Erin (My old assistant from the Fayetteville days) is here with her husband Casey and we are about to go to lunch. (See photo of Erin and I in the freezing rain) other than Erin and Casey I have not seen any other photographers that I know here. I think must of them are waiting until March when an even larger convention will be in Las Vegas. The photographers that I have met here that are my age seemed to have an attitude of panic about all of the young photographers attending this year.
Erin and Casey are in a different hotel than I so it is a bit lonely here. I wish someone very cool was here with me so we could cause some trouble.
Three years ago on Biloxi MS, there were 3000 photographers that attended this event. Last year in Austin TX they had 7000. This year over 10,000 photographers have joined the organization and come to the convention. Most of these new photographers do not have a clue. But they came here to get one. And this is the place to get it. The statistics show that 80 % of them will be out of business in 3 years. Of the 20 % that survive, 80% of those will be out of business in 7 years.
This May I will have been in business 27 years. My new goal is to help some of these young photographers. I am looking for a few good ones with talent and the right attitude to take under my wing and teach for free. All the rest I will try to sell my advice to.