Father’s Day. When the kids were still kids, it meant a lot. It was cards and special gifts (not ties, but t-shirts with slogans and crazy characters printed on the front) and trips out for dinner to celebrate Day. I still get calls and cards and little crazy gifts, but it’s not quite the same. Except for tonight.

We ate at a local UNO’s in International Drive tonight because we’d gotten a coupon for a free meal for dad. So we went over, and I had a roasted vegetable penne pasta meal. It was pretty good. I’ve been moving away from animal protean, especially meat, as I’ve come to discover how it’s produced. That knowledge has pretty much killed my appetite for animal flesh. But that’s a story for another entry. While we were waiting for our meals to arrive, a young lady, about the same age as my girls, came by and offered to create a balloon character for us. While she was there I asked if I could photography her while she worked on it, and she said yes. The character she created was Raphael from Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtles, a cartoon show my girls watched when they were still kids.

It was fun to watch her work. She did a great job. And to complete the circle, I’ve sent both my girls a photo of Raphael to remind them of a bit of their past. In all, it was the perfect father’s day gift.

Camera

Panasonic GX1 and 2.5/14mm pancake lens. A very discrete, non-intimidating camera. Post processed with Analog Efex Pro 2 and Silver Efex Pro 2. The black-and-white looked a lot like Tri-X.